On Monday, July 29, 2024, it was revealed that a volunteer from “Our House,” who had significantly assisted in humanitarian work with Belarusian and Ukrainian refugees, fled to Belarus and appeared on Igor Tur’s propaganda program “Fed Up with DIRT. The ESCAPED activist of the runaway opposition on informing the KGB, scandals, and the fight for power.”

Recall that on July 21, 2024, this same Belarusian propagandist Igor Tur claimed on his TV program that secret negotiations were underway between Lithuania and Belarus regarding the extradition of Olga Karach to Belarus. The propagandist also asserted that “Lithuania will hand over Olga Karach no later than early 2026 to Belarus, where the human rights activist will fully serve her 12-year prison term.”

The defected volunteer is also a member of the Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada,” where she also gathered information about the party’s activities, which she passed on to the KGB and propagandists, a fact the propagandists highlighted in the broadcast. The party’s chairman, Mikalai Statkevich, is currently in prison incommunicado detention, being tortured, and recognized as a political prisoner.

Recall that on July 8, 2024, in the framework of a common criminal case, human rights defender Olga Karach and Yauhen Vilski, acting chairman of the Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada,” were sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison for “attempting an unconstitutional coup in Belarus,” as well as hefty fines.

Surprisingly, the Lithuanian Department of National Security vetted the volunteer and gave her a positive recommendation to the Lithuanian Migration Department as a reliable and trustworthy activist. As a result, she received political asylum in Lithuania without any problems or undue doubts.

This is not the first time the Belarusian KGB has spied on Olga Karach and the Belarusian organization “Our House” in Lithuania.

On September 28, 2022, Lithuanian lawyer Mantas Danelius, who had been hired by “Our House” to handle documents for Belarusian conscientious objectors and refugees, was detained in Vilnius. The Lithuanian lawyer joined “Our House” right after the war began, in March 2022.

It turned out that the KGB had recruited the Lithuanian citizen to monitor Belarusian human rights activists from “Our House” in Lithuania. Mantas Danelius is currently on trial, officially charged with espionage for the KGB and gathering information about the human rights activists of “Our House” and other organizations. The penalty for this offense is imprisonment for a term of 6 to 15 years.

Recall that Lithuanian human rights activist and director of the Lithuanian branch of Freedom House, Vytis Jurkonis, after the arrest of lawyer Mantas Danelius, began a campaign of harassment and victim-blaming against Belarusian human rights activists in exile. He publicly stated on the Lithuanian portal Delfi that Belarusian human rights activists Olga Karach and Natalya Kolegova were to blame for the Belarusian KGB hunting them down in Lithuania and should apologize to Lithuania for becoming victims of KGB espionage in Lithuania.

A similar other incident occurred in the fall of 2020 when Belarusian activist Ilya Begun arrived to Lithuania. He crossed the border without a visa with the help of Vytis Jurkonis, the director of the American human rights organization Freedom House, who vouched for him as a reliable and trustworthy person suffering from the actions of the Belarusian regime. Later, the Lithuanian Department of National Security also identified Ilya Begun as a reliable and trustworthy person and issued him a humanitarian residence permit in Lithuania as a victim of Belarusian regime repression.

Ilya Begun actively cooperated with various human rights organizations, including “Our House.” During this time, he began dating the press secretary of one of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s main foundations. The young couple started living together, and the girl had serious plans for their future life together with him. This press secretary of one of Tikhanovskaya’s main foundations was also friends with several volunteers from other organizations, including “Our House,” exchanging information with them.

In early January 2021, Ilya Begun hacked his girlfriend’s computer, downloaded all the information from it, and fled to Belarus, where he handed over all the obtained information to the KGB and propagandists. It turned out that Ilya Begun had been recruited by the KGB to gather information about the activities of “Our House” and Olga Karach, as well as other Belarusian organizations in exile.

Based on the documents stolen by Ilya Begun, the same Belarusian propagandist Igor Tur presented a multi-episode propaganda TV series “The Lies of the Runaways” (the word “runaway” here is used in the sense of “runway slave” – ed.) on the state television channel, and later released a book of the same name, “The Lies of the Runaways,” dedicated to the activities of Olga Karach and “Our House” in Exile as a whole, as well as other Belarusian organizations in exile.

“Our House” firmly declares that despite the very diverse methods used by the Belarusian KGB, including attempts at espionage and recruiting people to gather information about the activities of “Our House” and human rights defender Olga Karach, we will continue our human rights work and peacebuilding activities to protect human rights, democracy, freedom and peace.

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