Aleksandr Milinkevich charged with “deliberately crossing the border with false documents”
Leader of the Belarusian United Democratic Forces Aleksandr Milinkevich was detained on Wednesday, 29 November, but released after an official protocol was drawn up over “deliberately crossing the border with false documents”.
Under this article, Milinkevich faces either two months custodial arrest or a huge fine.
The leader of the opposition was detained on Wednesday at around 17.00 in the national airport “Minsk”, on his return from the NATO summit in Riga, on suspicion of showing false documents. It transpired that on his way to the Latvian capital several days ago, he accidentally handed the Belarusian border guards his sons passport instead of his own, his son also called Aleksandr,Milinkevich, but born in 1974.. He had his sons passport by chance, and it was in the same pocket as his own. The border guard did not look carefully and didnt notice that the passport holder was 25 years older than the age given in the document and that there was no Latvian visa, and simply stamped it.
Aleksandr Milinkevich only realized that the stamp had been placed in his sons passport in Riga. Despite the fact that in the given case there was a clear oversight by the border officials who failed to properly check the documents, Milinkevich has been issued with an administrative protocol. The politician flew into Minsk around 17.00, but was only released at about 21.00.
Aleksandr Milinkevich was taking part in the NATO summit at the invitation of the Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga. During the summit he met with US President Bush.
Based on material from Charter97.org