Ales Dzyanisau: District police officer scared my underage daughter

A case has been started against him for a repost on the social medium VKontakte, frontman of the Hrodna band Dzieciuki Ales Dzyanisau told Euroradio. A person who called himself a district police officer phoned Ales and invited him to an interrogation the other day:

"A Hrodna policeman phoned me yesterday. He introduced himself but I could not catch his name because I was at a football match. Some case had been started against me but I could not hear whether it was an administrative or criminal case. He invited me to an interrogation but I refused to come and asked him to send me an official invitation.”

Somebody called Ales’ home number when he was at a concert in Poland earlier. His minor daughter answered the phone. She was illegally interrogated and got scared, Ales said.

Ales Dzyanisau has already lodged a complaint about the policeman’s illegal actions to the Public Prosecutor’s Office:

"A person who called himself our district police officer but did not introduce himself started asking my daughter about my whereabouts. He told her that a criminal case had been started against me for some repost on VKontakte. The interrogation of my minor daughter lasted for 10 minutes. That person was rude and unmannerly. He scared my daughter. He did not have the right to interrogate my minor daughter on the phone.”

Euroradio has not managed to contact Illya Kayach (Ales Dzyanisau’s district police officer).

The band Dzieciuki is rarely allowed to perform in Belarus. The authorities keep forbidding their concerts ‘due to low artistic quality’.

Ales is not allowed to give solo concerts either. He is being persecuted for cooperation with the TV channel Belsat.  His flat was searched in July. “A check-up allowed by the Criminal Code was being conducted”, he was told back then.