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| - Police in Belarus on Thursday searched the home of President Alexander Lukashenko's leading election rival and took him in for questioning, his staff said. Viktor Babaryko, a former banker seeking to challenge strongman Lukashenko at the presidential polls in August, and his son Eduard were "making statements" to the department of financial investigations, campaign spokesman Gleb Germanchuk told AFP. Their lawyers were prevented from accessing the premises, he added. Germanchuk said several vans and cars without license plates surrounded Babaryko's home in the capital Minsk, and journalists were not allowed to enter due to the search. Babaryko formerly headed Belgazprombank, a Belarus subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom. Last week investigators raided the offices of Belgazprombank and launched probes into tax dodging and money laundering against current and former bankers. So far Babaryko has not been named as a suspect and there was no comment from authorities regarding his interrogation or the search of his home. Law enforcement authorities in the ex-Soviet country have cracked down hard on would-be opposition candidates ahead of an election in which Lukashenko is vying for a sixth term. The run-up has seen a flurry of opposition activity and the detention of prominent figures. Lukashenko, a 65-year-old former collective farm director, has ruled Belrus since 1994 and raised the possibility of serving a further two terms. He has branded opposition activists "bands of criminals" who want to disrupt the election. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, an international election and war monitor, has not recognised any polls in Belarus as free and fair since 1995. tk-ma/as/bp
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