KGB visited relatives of another Vitebsk activist. A search was conducted
They were warned not to participate in events marking Political Prisoner's Day.
A wave of searches has swept across Belarus, targeting relatives of civic activists and human rights defenders who were forced to leave the country. It became known that on May 21, KGB officers conducted a search at the home of relatives of Vitebsk activist Dzmitry Karniyenka.
The activist wrote about this visit and its true reasons on his Facebook page: «Officially – due to the celebration of Freedom Day. Unofficially – so that on this day they would not attend mourning events dedicated to Political Prisoner's Day».
According to Karniyenka, law enforcement officers took nothing during this search.
However, he noted that representatives of the special services visit his relatives in Belarus «as if to work». His relatives are subjected to constant pressure: for example, Dzmitry's father has already had a DNA sample forcibly taken twice.
In Belarus, several criminal cases have been initiated against Dzmitry Karniyenka himself, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has added him to the lists of participants in «extremist formations» for his involvement in the «Christian Vision» project and the Vitebsk initiative «People's Deputy».
The search at Karniyenka's relatives was not an isolated incident. On May 21, law enforcement officers conducted a mass raid on the relatives of Belarusians who are in emigration and are engaged in human rights or public activities. Among other things, a search also took place at the home of relatives of Uladzislau Labkovich, a human rights defender from the Viasna Human Rights Centre.
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