Investigative Experiment Ends with 4-year Imprisonment to 20-year-old Girl for ‘Drugs Trafficking’
On 30 May Marharyta Tsaran, former first-year student of the psychology department of Hrodna state university, was put to Homel women’s colony to serve 4-year prison term for ‘selling drugs’.
Marharyta Tsaran left the secondary school with all excellent marks and won the maximal number of grades possible to enter the university. She was sentenced to 4 years of jail for selling 0,28 grams of marijuana for 22 000 rubles (about 10 US dollars).
The European Radio decided to discriminate how she became a ‘drugdealer’. Marharyta’s friend Tatsiana Kulik asserts that the girl didn’t sell drugs and didn’t even consume them. She didn’t even go to discos.
‘Ryta read a lot, it was always pleasant to speak with her. When it happened, I could not believe it. She is a very kind person and got there thanks to her kindness.’
What happened? According to Marharyta’s mother, a friend of her childhood, Andrei Kisel, phoned. They didn’t meet for three years before this call. Andrei said that the teacher of law Andrei Zdasiuk, who lectured in Marharyta’s faculty, sells drugs, and asked to buy a doze for him. It did not surprise the girl.
Valiantsina Tsaran: ‘He read to first-year students lectures about the positive influence of drugs, that many philosophers and literary workers, including Marharyta’s beloved writer Bulgakov, were drug addicts. The 27-year-old teacher often said that he tried everything himself and is ‘still trying’. Students have texbooks about the dozes and costs of drugs.
For three weeks of acquaintance the teacher phoned to Marharyta 320 times. He also phoned soon after Kisel’s call and Marharyta reported to him friend’s request. Zdasiuk gave marijuana to my daughter and she brought it to Kisel.’
Before the trial Andrei Kisel in presense of witnesses stated that the police inclined him to collaboration with blackmail (he was detained at a disco with a marijuana joint). He was told that in the case he helped to catch Zdasiuk (who was suspected in selling drugs) with the assistance of his friend he would not be imprisoned. Andrei agreed. He even wrote an application to the prosecutor’s office about the blackmail. But then, on the eve of the trial he changed his testimonies.
At present the drugdealer, lecturer of Hrodna university Andrei Zdasiuk is in international search. According to the head of the department of drugs control of Leninski police department of HRodna Dzianis Bahdzevich, Kisel was tried and sentenced to a short term for illegal storage of drugs, whereas Marharyta Tsaran was sentenced to 4 years of jail.
When the European Radio asked why the ‘control purchase’ wasn’t performed by a policeman, Dzianis Bahdzevich answered: ‘In the case a policeman is ‘implanted’ we need a permission and very serious grounds. The law permits us to participate in such experiments and do ‘control purchase’. However, in the case policemen are drawn to such operations – it can be qualified as solicitation. Then the policeman becomes a target, whereas ordinary citizens don’t owe nothing to anybody.’
What concerns Marharyta, the policeman says that in the case she was imprisoned she is guilty. Valiantsina Tsaran has applied to the prosecutor’s office with the demand to bring a criminal case against the policemen who put behind bars and innocent person with their ‘investigative experiment’.
The investigator Aliaksandr Komleu is checking the case. According to him, often investigative experiments fail because of mistakes. Dzianis Bahdzevich, in his turn, states that his people acted legally and and the check-up won’t change anything.
