Account of the Belarusian PEN Center arrested

The bank account of the Belarusian PEN Center, headed by the Nobel laureate, member of the Presidium of the Opposition Coordination Council Svetlana Aleksievich, was arrested. This is reported by the organization itself and Telegram channel NEXTA.

The account was arrested on the basis of the decision of the Investigative Committee of Belarus dated July 13, 2021.

The bank account of the Imena charitable organization was also seized. Now she can not make payments, including transferring funds collected for their work to projects, informs Interfax.

The organization does not know what became the basis for the decisions of the UK. “But our site is working and your donations continue to flow in favor of the projects to the bank’s transit account until the arrest is lifted,” said the founder of “Imen” Kateryna Sinyuk.

The Belarusian PEN Center was established in 1989. He was admitted to the international PEN-Club in 1990, and in this regard, he has the status “A” in UNESCO and the status of an adviser to the UN. Svetlana Aleksievich has been leading the organization since 2019.

The Names project has been operating in Belarus for over five years. He helps people with disabilities, orphans, homeless people, people with mental illness, women who have suffered from domestic violence.

On July 14, searches in non-governmental organizations and the media were carried out in Belarus. The Investigative Committee of the Republic explained this by their involvement in shadow cash flows and tax evasion. In particular, searches were carried out in the Imen’s office, at the premises of Katerina Sinyuk and the director of the organization, Yekaterina Sergeeva.

On the same day, the security forces came to the legal address of the PEN-center. However, due to the pandemic, he has been working remotely for more than a year, so the investigators did not find representatives of the organization, said Tatyana Nedbay, vice-chairman of the PEN Center.

As a result, the GUBOP officers “conducted a search in another organization that has the same legal address.” The security forces seized all the equipment, and the employees of that organization became witnesses.
From the decree, which was in the hands of the security officials, it is known that 9 articles of the Criminal Code of Belarus are applied against the Belarusian PEN Center, including “Calls for actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus”, “Creation of an extremist formation”, “Financing activities of an extremist formation “,” Complicity in a crime “,” Unauthorized appropriation of power or the rank of an official “,” Preparation for a crime “,” Seizure of buildings and structures “and” Riots. ” reported UDF.