Cameroonian football player to complain to UN about Belarus

28-year-old Guy François Toukam who was detained in Belarus for 44 days on suspicion of forging documents received a reply from Belarusian officials a few days ago. According to it, the Cameroonian football player refused from a lawyer, he got an interpreter at the very beginning and Guy François Toukam admitted that his passport was forged!

"Evidently, it is a lie! – the player’s fiancée and lawyer Inmaculada Gonsalez is indignant. – Guy knows how important is to have a lawyer and he asked for one in the first place. He did not get any interpreter neither at the airport, not in the detention centre. Guy did not sign any documents and, naturally, he did not admit that his passport was forged!”

Let us remind you that Guy François Toukam arrived in Minsk to play a futsal match of the European Champions Cup in Minsk on June 1. However, he was detained on suspicion of having forged his passport at the airport and delivered to Minsk detention centre in Akrsestsina.





Guy François Toukam
According to the official reply, “He received an interpreter and was offered a lawyer to take part in his administrative case, but he refused from one. Remarks in his case signed by Mr. G. F. Toukam testify to it”.

"Guy says he did not sign any documents, none at all, and he was not even asked to sign any documents, - continues Inmaculada. – I am sure he did not sign anything. Naturally, he did not admit that his passport had been forged”.

Іnmaculada does not understand how Belarusian frontier guards could announce the passport was forged while policemen and European institutions hadn’t noticed it.

Inmaculada Gonsalez: "Guy had never had any problems with his passport before. He used it to fly to Norway from Spain. He received a residence permit with it in 2008 and a special commission studied every page of it then.  The Spanish police looked through it afterwards. He prolonged his residence permit in 2009 and went through the procedure again – and there were no remarks”.

Let us note that the complaint of Inmaculada Gonsalez to the Ministry of Internal Affairs was sent to the State Border Committee and then to the department of border control “Minsk” that was responsible for the detention of the football player.

Inmaculada Gonsalez: "It is impossible in Spain. Every complaint can be reconsidered by a higher level instance only. I could not believe my eyes when I received the reply as it was full of lies! That person was trying to put himself right with higher officials for the illegal detention. I sent e-mails to Mr. Lukashenka and various ministries and they said I would be given a reply. Now they are making excuses and invent anything they like”.

Inmaculada Gonsalez says that they will go ahead and will complain to the UN Human Rights Committee.

Inmaculada Gonsalez: "Of course, we are not going to stop here, we will complain to the UN. However, we have to go through Belarusian instances first. It will not be done only for François, it will be done for other people who may get into a similar trouble. It is not a complaint about the country or its citizens, it is about corrupt actions of Belarusian officials making people suffer”.

The reply of the acting head of the border control department “Minsk” says: “Having analyzed the incident, we have come to the conclusion that the rights and legal interests of Mr. Guy François Toukam were not violated starting from the moment of his detention at the airport until his release, his subjection to administrative responsibility was legal and valid”.