Image credit: The TV channel Belarus One
MINSK, 13 August (BelTA) - Latvian citizen Daniel Tsirsis commented on the case against four Latvians detained with marijuana at the border in an interview with the Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA has learned.
On 26 July, four Latvian citizens entered Belarus through the Grigorovshchina checkpoint. Three girls and one guy: Daniel, Polina, Anastasia and Vladlena. They were going to the music festival in Braslav.
"The girls invited me to go to the Viva Braslav festival with them. I had never attended it, so I decided to go and keep the girls company," Daniel said.
According to him, he had been to Belarus many times before. "I've probably been here 20 times. I visited Minsk, mostly as a tourist. I also traveled to visit my friends," the young man said. Therefore, this seemed to be an ordinary trip.
A small bag with unknown substance was found inside their car during the border check. A canine handler called to the scene confirmed that the sniffer dog detected drugs. Later the examination showed that the bag contained marijuana. The Latvian nationals denied the drugs belonged to them. They assumed however where it could have come from. One of Daniel's acquaintances might have dropped it when Daniel gave him a lift the day before.
An investigation was launched into the matter. Three days later, the Latvian citizens were released from the pre-trial detention facility on their recognizance. All necessary tests were run to see whether these four people left any traces
on the bag with marijuana. However, before the tests were ready and made public, fake news went viral on the internet, with headlines like “They went to Belarus for festival and ended up in jail”, and accusations about the lack of the rule of law in Belarus, and so on.
“I would like to ask people not to comment on the situation, without looking into it. Do not try to convey something or present yourself a hero, because it can hurt us and you too or start a conflict, which, probably, has already happened,” Daniel said. “Someone expressed himself incorrectly, tried to hype, saying that we are being killed here and something like that. All kinds of nonsense. What I didn't like most of all was that different people offered their opinion on the things they had not have the slightest idea. It wasn't good for us at all. We knew that we should just wait. Sooner or later everything would fall into place, justice would prevail and everything would be fine.”
As it has been reported, during a meeting with the residents of Prudok agro-town on 2 August, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said that he had instructed to clarify the circumstances surrounding the detention of four Latvian citizens in Belarus. Eventually, the case was resolved: all charges were dismissed and they returned home.
On 26 July, four Latvian citizens entered Belarus through the Grigorovshchina checkpoint. Three girls and one guy: Daniel, Polina, Anastasia and Vladlena. They were going to the music festival in Braslav.
"The girls invited me to go to the Viva Braslav festival with them. I had never attended it, so I decided to go and keep the girls company," Daniel said.
According to him, he had been to Belarus many times before. "I've probably been here 20 times. I visited Minsk, mostly as a tourist. I also traveled to visit my friends," the young man said. Therefore, this seemed to be an ordinary trip.
A small bag with unknown substance was found inside their car during the border check. A canine handler called to the scene confirmed that the sniffer dog detected drugs. Later the examination showed that the bag contained marijuana. The Latvian nationals denied the drugs belonged to them. They assumed however where it could have come from. One of Daniel's acquaintances might have dropped it when Daniel gave him a lift the day before.
An investigation was launched into the matter. Three days later, the Latvian citizens were released from the pre-trial detention facility on their recognizance. All necessary tests were run to see whether these four people left any traces
on the bag with marijuana. However, before the tests were ready and made public, fake news went viral on the internet, with headlines like “They went to Belarus for festival and ended up in jail”, and accusations about the lack of the rule of law in Belarus, and so on.
“I would like to ask people not to comment on the situation, without looking into it. Do not try to convey something or present yourself a hero, because it can hurt us and you too or start a conflict, which, probably, has already happened,” Daniel said. “Someone expressed himself incorrectly, tried to hype, saying that we are being killed here and something like that. All kinds of nonsense. What I didn't like most of all was that different people offered their opinion on the things they had not have the slightest idea. It wasn't good for us at all. We knew that we should just wait. Sooner or later everything would fall into place, justice would prevail and everything would be fine.”
As it has been reported, during a meeting with the residents of Prudok agro-town on 2 August, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said that he had instructed to clarify the circumstances surrounding the detention of four Latvian citizens in Belarus. Eventually, the case was resolved: all charges were dismissed and they returned home.
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