Henadz Fiadynich: This Lawlessness Must Be Stopped

The REP trade union filed a complaint against the Investigative Committee to the prosecutor's office.

"These lawless mass interrogations of people in the regions must be stopped!" – the chairman of the independent trade union REP Henadz Fiadynich said to praca-by.info.

The trade union considers it to be unlawful that the Investigative Committee interrogates people who in no way can be witnesses to the "case of trade unions":

– They just summon people to interrogations at random and ask them questions that don't relate to their activities in the trade union at all, they press, threaten to send a notification to their place of work... People tell this with indignation in numerous calls to the office," – Henadz Fiadynich said.

– Each investigator who conducts interrogations must be included in the investigation team. We must know: who else, besides the three investigators in Minsk about whom we are aware, was engaged in the proceedings? The figurants Fiadynich and Komlik do not know who interrogates people and why they do it.

Henadz Fiadynich believes that it is a significant violation that the questions of investigators throughout all Belarus look as if copy-pasted:

– They ask one and the same questions to everybody, as if it's a questionnaire. And questions about how people pay contributions, how the organization works are internal business of the trade union! To ask such questions is a gross violation of the Convention #87 of the International Labor Organization "On Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize", which Belarus has ratified. The prosecutor's office must learn about this and make its verdict.

The trade union leader said that the trade union members react differently to the interrogations:

– Someone, of course, is frightened; especially those who have never dealt with the Investigative Committee. But when people leave the interrogation room having found out what was the real reason for their summoning, they all are outraged! At least those who called me. They say, let's hold pickets, let's protest somehow, because this lawlessness must be stopped! The overwhelming majority of people are outraged by the actions of the Investigative Committee in the regions.