Navapolatsk resident suspected of “treason”
Andrei Haidukou, deputy
head of the youth association "Union of Young Intellectuals" was
detained in Vitsebsk on November 8. Soon,
he was moved to Minsk, and now he is in the KGB jail. Reports
say that another resident of Navapolatsk was questioned in the case – activist
of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party Ilya Bahdanau, but he was later released
on recognizance.
Details
of Andrei Haidukou’s detention were told by his mother Volha:
"They
just came with a search warrant. I did not know that my son had gone to Vitsebsk.
He is an adult, and we have different views on some things. I told him
repeatedly said that civil activities is a dangerous business. But he said that
he has his own beliefs, and that there was nothing illegal about his activism.
Andrei wanted to register some organization in Navapolatsk. But I do not know
much about this, we do not talk about it. But I am sure that the charges he is
facing are not true! He is not a traitor, and if he got in trouble, it’s all because
of his youth and foolishness. Or that is some sort of set-up.”
Andrei
Haidukou’s mother says her son was warned not to be involved in politics, including
during “educational” talks at Polatsk University, where Andrei takes a
correspondence course, and at work – the guy works as a mechanic at the major oil
refinery "Naftan".
Andrei
Haidukou is not affiliated with any opposition parties, but was engaged in
public affairs in the Navapolatsk-based “Union of Young Intellectuals”. The NGO’s
Head Yauhen Kanstantsinau says that they participated together in “silent
protests”:
"We
applauded in the square, prepared "March of Freedom"... Besides, our
organization arranged seminars and trainings, we have had debating clubs. I
do not understand why Andrei could be useful to the American intelligence, he
was not working at a secret industry, he does not know any extraordinary
secrets. An ordinary
guy, curious, reads a lot..."
None
of Andrei’s friends knows the details of the case: all the information is only
from online sources. There
is but one his friend, BCD activist Ilya Bahdanau from Polatsk, who knows more.
But
he can’t speak on the issue, after he signed a non-disclosure commitment.
According
to the official website of the KGB, "the State Security Committee prevented
the illegal activities of a citizen of the Republic of Belarus, who was engaged
by a foreign intelligence service in the collection and transmission of
political and economic data. The citizen was arrested by the KGB officers when making
a dead drop. The detained person faces criminal charges under Par. 1 Art. 356 of
the Criminal Code of Belarus ("treason through intelligence activities");
a complex of operational-investigative activities aimed at identifying other
episodes of his illegal activities is currently in progress."
