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