Interpellation in the Matter of the Shackles Put on Deputy Siarhei Baran

Deputies Yaremich and comrades of the Belarusian Club to the Messrs. Ministers of Justice and of the Interior, in the matter of the putting of shackles on Deputy Siarhei Baran.

The military court in Hrodna summoned Deputy Siarhei Baran as a witness for 10 May. While leading him at 10 o'clock in the morning, the Hrodna police dared to put shackles on him, and, as if in mockery, led him down the middle of the street.

Deputy S. Baran, a permanent resident of the town of Hrodna, which is his native town, is known to all the local population as a man of public merit and a true defender of the Belarusian people in Poland. For this reason he was elected deputy in his district.

As is known, Deputy S. Baran at the time appeared before the court of his own free will, which proves that he did not intend to hide from "the administration of justice"; he is a political prisoner, not a criminal one, so we regard his being put in shackles as an abuse of a Belarusian deputy by the police.

This fact testifies not only to the police's outrage against Deputy Baran, but also to the state administration's disrespect for the high and sacred feeling that the Belarusian working people in Poland have for their elected representative. This fact has deepened still further the existing chasm between the Polish administration and the Belarusian people.

On account of the above, the undersigned ask the Messrs. Ministers: 1) Are they aware of the above fact? 2) Did a higher authority issue the order to put shackles on Deputy Baran? 3) Do they intend to hold responsible those guilty of the abuse against the Belarusian deputy? 4) Do they intend to go on permitting the putting of shackles on political prisoners?

Warsaw, 10 June 1924.