Updated at 13:52,22-04-2024

Uladzimir Kobets released from KGB detention centre last night

Euroradio

Uladzimir Kobets, head of the election team of a former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau, has been released. He was imprisoned on December 21. "Many things are new to me at liberty", - says the recent prisoner of the KGB detention centre.

They were going to release him before Christmas but "changed their mind" at the last minute, said Uladzimir Kobets to Euroradio on air.

"I was suddenly summoned for an interrogation yesterday evening and I was handed in a document informing about the change of my measure of restraint to a release on recognizance", - says Kobets. He spent the whole night talking to his wife – he had not seen her and his children for 36 days. Uladzimir Kobets is also reading a lot "to gather information about the events that took place at liberty". According to him, most information arrived at the KGB detention centre in newspapers, but most of them were the state press. "That is why many things are new to me", - says the recent KGB prisoner.

Euroradio has asked Kobets whether representatives of the General Prosecutors’ Office visited him in his cell. Let us remind you that Ryhor Vasilevich, the Attorney General, claimed at his today’s press conference that KGB prisoners had been visited and had not complained about anything. Uladzimir Kobets says that nobody visited him: "Why would you complain? It is prison, it is not a health centre, and the conditions are appropriate", - he says.

Uladzimir Kobets thinks that he has not written any "appeals" or letters. His status has not changed – he is still accused of "mass disorders".
"I wish I could believe that this is the beginning of the release of the people detained there. It is important that we think about the way to help those behind bars and to release them as soon as possible", - said Kobets.