Andrei Haidukou's mother: we cannot understand what is really done to our sone

Volha Haidukova, the mother of the civil activist Andrei Haidukou charged with "high treason", stated that she could only communicate with her son by means of mail correspondence.

"The events concerning my son remain strange and incomprehensible to me. I wasn't allowed to meet with him and haven't received any telephone. The only thing left to me is to write letters," said Volha Haidukova at a round table on Minsk on 7 February.

23-year-old deputy head of the Union of Young Intellectuals Andrei Haidukou was detained by KGB officers in Vitsebsk on 8 November, allegedly while making a hiding with information that could present interest for foreign intelligence services. He was charged with "state treachery in the form of intelligence activities", Article 356 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, and faces 7-15 years of imprisonment.
On 11 November Mr. Haidukou was transferred from Vitsebsk to the pre-trial prison of KGB in Minsk, on 29 November – back to Vitsebsk, and on 22 December – again to Minsk. According to the relatives, at first he was kept in the pre-trial prison in Valadarski Street, and on 27 December was taken to the pre-trial prison of KGB.

"We cannot understand what is really done to our son. Yes, we knew that he was opposition-minded and his activities were disliked by the authorities. However, how is it related to CIA and the like? Andrei was also telling us he didn't do anything illegal. As it can be seen from his letters, he was totally bewildered with such development of the events," said Volha Haidukova.

She also pointed that in his letters Andrei asked her not to be anxious about him.

The leader of the unregistered association "Union of Young Intellectuals" Yauhen Kanstantsinau stated that the dissent of the authorities could be caused by the preparation of the registration documents for the organization by Haidukou. "We saw the Union of Young Intellectuals as an international organization. Andrei dealt with all issues concerning the registration. If he hadn't been arrested, in two weeks we could pass documents for registration," said Mr. Kanstantsinau.

The coordinator of the civil initiative "For Liberty" Hanna Shaputska considers the charges against Andrei Haidukou to be absurd. "At first I thought that the authorities will maybe show some documents confirming that spies really acted on the territory of Belarus. However, three months have passed since the arrest and everything what is happening started looking like a farce, another wave of reprisals against civil activists and oppositionists. Andrei Haidukou can be considered as a political prisoner," she added.