Stefanovіch: I will not go underground

Human rights activist Valyantsin Stefanovich has returned to Belarus. He had to live in Vilnius since Ales Byalyatski’s arrest at the beginning of August. The thing is information about Stefanovich was sent to Minsk together with the information about Ales Byalyatski’s banking accounts. Euroradio has interviewed the human rights defender on his return to Minsk.

Euroradio: How was your trip to Belarus?

Stefanovіch: Everything is okay and peaceful now. My trip was okay. There were no problems at the passport control.

Euroradio: What are your short-range plans? Will you “surrender” to the tax inspectorate?

Stefanovіch: Why should I surrender when I have already been handed over to them? I should not go there to surrender. The tax inspectorate has brought an action against me. The notion of “mandatory execution” has been mentioned (there is such a procedure in the code of civil procedure – “mandatory levy in case of indebtedness to the budget without a dispute”).

However, I appealed the decision before my departure and they had to cancel the order. The tax inspectorate has to bring an action against me now so that the indebtedness could be levied in court. However, I have not been informed about any suits yet.

I have been told that officers of the court came once but it must have happened when the order was pronounced. My wife did not let them in and said that I was away. And everything is quiet now.
 
I will be waiting for the tax inspectorate’s suit and I will take part in the hearing. If the court’s decision is made in favour of the tax inspectorate, I will appeal it in a court of higher instance. These are my current plans. I would like to spend the weekend with my family because I have not seen them for two months.

Euroradio: Are you planning to go underground or hide?

Stefanovіch: There is no sense doing it. I would not have returned if I had wanted to hide or go underground. I have been offered political asylum in different countries many times and the Lithuanian Foreign Minister phoned me yesterday and suggested that I should have changed my mind. He was worried about my safety here and expressed a thought that I did not have to return to Belarus. Since I have returned, I will continue my previous activities.

Photo by — svaboda.org