Lida Shabetnik from Rechytsa (south-eastern Belarus) is 11 years old. She is very young, but already has a bank account. She needs it in order to receive the state support as a motherless child. Some days ago 539 000 Belarusian rubles (about $ 250) disappeared from her account.
Aleh Shabetnik, Lida’s father, went to the bank in order to find out what has happened. It turned out, that the bank secretly withdrew the money… in order to cover the fine, which Aleh has to pay.
Aleh is a member of the regional branch of the Belarusian social-democratic party (Hramada). In February he was fined for allegedly transporting the illegal printed materials over the Belarusian border (some oppositional leaflets). Aleh paid out the fine (1 550 000 rubles – about $720) in rates – 200 000 a months. He still had some months to go, but “Belarusbank” decided to withdraw the rest of the sum from the 11-year-old girl. The bank employees admitted it, but gave no legal reason for such a decision.
All this strongly reminds of the Stalin’s rule in the 30’s, when family members were often (legally!) made responsible for the political “crimes” of their relatives. In Belarus such an opportunity is not foreseen by law. However, “Belarusbank” seems to write its own laws.
Information source: http://bulletinonline.org
