Belarus: Entrepreneur Sviatlana Dvaraninava Goes on Hunger Strike of Protest because of Fabrication of Criminal Case

According to Regnum informational agency

This information was distributed by the entrepreneur’s daughter, Yauheniya Dvaraninava. According to Yauheniya, the investigation groundlessly refuses to admit her to the trial over her mother as a defender. ‘The last time I saw my mother was at the end of the last ear. In summer they sentenced her to 8 years of jail for untimely return of the manufacturing debt. She was found guilty of fraud and theft by abuse of the duty powers, though there are no episodes on which she left any finances to herself. All the borrowed money was spent on manufacture. Now a number of analogical episodes are incriminated to her. That’s why she is tried again,’ Yauheniya said. She is sure that the mother was imprisoned for refusal to give bribes to the investigative organs.

Sviatlana Dvaraninava states that in the case one takes the position of the investigation and the court, any businessman who borrows money for business in Belarus can be imprisoned. ‘The investigation was one-sided. Many documents which were attached by the investigation disappeared and the accusation was grounded only on those who showed my business activity in a negative light,’ she commented. ‘The documents on which I implemented my undertakings weren’t presented at all, though the investigation had plenty of them. I have the impression, that on my example they showed to other businessman that it is dangerous not to ‘reach agreement’ with the investigation.’

Now the criminal case against Sviatlana Dvaraninava is considered at the Supreme Court of Belarus. The verdict will be issued in the middle of May. The hunger-striker demands her daughter be admitted to the trial as a defender, an independent expertise of her negotiations be conducted and the case be passed to any other court of Minsk.