Are more than 70 persons detained in blast case in Minsk?

• 16.07.2008, 8:26

This figure has been named by a Russian citizen, a student Vladimir Belonin, who was released from the detention centre in Akrestsin Street. He was kept there as a suspect in the blast case in Minsk.

The Embassy of Russia in Belarus two times demanded to release Vladimir Belonin by special notes. Independent mass media of Belarus and Russia joined the efforts to release him. They told a lot about Vladimir, and about his disease as well. He needs special food because of it. It is unknown what has affected the Belarusian investigators most, but still they have released Vladimir Belonin. Soon after release the Russian citizen answered questions of “Radio Svaboda”:

- Have you signed a non-disclosure agreement concerning details of the investigation?

- No, why? I haven’t been told any secrets.

- Do you know how many detained are there in the Akrestsin Street in the blast case?

- According to some reports, there were 13 of them on Friday. The total number of detained, as I have been told in the prison cell, is 70 persons. But I haven’t been going to cells counting.

- How were the investigators treating you? Have they been exerting pressure on you?

- It seems that there haven’t been any particular pressure. Everything was as usual.

- What are the conditions in the remand prison?

- As in a usual prison. Four beds without mattresses. We used bottles with water instead of pillows. They were not giving us pillows. They give bed-linen only to the people on the third floor, to those who have been charged already.

- Are there any other people connected to this case released except of you?

- No one except of me, as far as I know.

- And what is your version of events on July 4?

- There could me many versions. I wouldn’t like to speak about that. I need to think it all over.

- But as far as I know, you were interested in the place of the explosion; you went there to examine it. Do you think it is terrorism or something else?

- It’s possible. But there is not enough evidence. I con only have guesses yet.

- Can you comment on the events that have occurred to you?

- In general, as the lawyer has explained to me, it is completely legal that I had been detained for 10 days.

- But they could just interrogate you, and not detain, couldn’t they? Moreover, you have been questioned once already. Why did they need to arrest you?

- I do not know that, it’s the decision of people with high positions.

As we have informed, Vladimir Belonin, a student of a Minsk university, was detained for the first time and interrogated on his implication in the explosion case on July 4. First Vladimir Belonin was a witness, though the young man explained that he hadn’t attended the concert. He arrived to the blast site on July 4 for the sake of curiosity. On July 9 Vladimir Belonin wrote an application to the Embassy of Russia. Soon he was arrested as a suspect and placed to the remand prison in Akrestsin Street.

The Internal Ministry of Belarus does not comment on the reports about the case concerning blast on July 4.