Alies Bialiacki, a Belarusian human rights defender who is now in prison, asked Polish diplomats not to provide the Belarusian authorities with information about his bank accounts abroad, reported the prominent Polish daily Rzeczpospolita.
Bialiacki, 50, personally visited the Polish embassy in Minsk in June 2011 and asked diplomats not to disclose his bank account details, the newspaper said.
His wife Natallia Pinchuk and associate Valiancin Stefanovich confirmed that the visit had taken place. According to the report,
Bialiacki was assured that such disclosure was impossible, and that Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski would be informed about his request.
In an interview with i>Rzeczpospolita, Marcin Bosacki, spokesman for the Polish foreign ministry, denied that Radoslaw Sikorski had received such information. He refused to say whether or not Bialiacki had met with Polish diplomats in Minsk.
“We cannot speak about the possible contacts between our diplomats and Belarusian oppositionists, especially those who, like Alies Bialiacki, are currently in prison,” Bosacki explained.
Neither Sikorski nor any other representative of the foreign ministry had told Prosecutor General Andrzej Seremet that legal information about Bialiacki had to be treated differently from information about other citizens of Belarus, Mateusz Martyniuk, spokesman for Poland's Public Prosecutor General's Office, told Rzeczpospolita. According to him, Sikorski and Seremet had a conversation about Mr. Bialiacki already after the disclosure of his bank account details.
Alies Bialiacki, chairman of a Belarusian human rights organization called Viasna (Spring) and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, was arrested in Minsk on August 4, 2011.
On November 24, 2011, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on a charge of large-scale tax evasion. The charge stemmed from information about his bank accounts abroad, which was provided by authorities in Lithuania and Poland under interstate legal assistance agreements. During his trial, Bialiacki insisted that the money transferred by various foundations to his bank accounts abroad had been intended to finance Viasna's activities and therefore could not be viewed as his income subject to taxation.
-
Tatyana Zaretskaya is no longer an Estonian startup entrepreneur. Now she is trying to become an intermediary for investors in Saudi Arabia.
-
«We are one family.» BelAZ dealers linked to Lukashenko's sons earn as much as BelAZ itself
-
Lithuania makes concessions: will allow entry with Belarusian license plates if the owner is driving and has a residence permit or visa for Lithuania
1xBet hosts thousands of fake matches, including in Belarus. They earn astronomical sums8
1xBet hosts thousands of fake matches, including in Belarus. They earn astronomical sums
«If the West Detained Lukashenko's Agents, There Could Be an Exchange Fund.» Vechorko on Political Prisoners, Cabinet Staff Turnover, Border Situation, and Visas9292
Comments