Counsel not allowed to meet Andrei Haidukou again

The Navapolatsk civil activist Andrei Haidukou has been kept under arrest for three months already. These days, the term of the "investigation" into his case has been extended for another month. At the same time, his counsel is regularly prevented from meeting his client: the KGB authorizes the meetings, but then states that "there are no free rooms", as a result of which the factual access to defense is blocked for the suspect.


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.

The relatives consider the KGB persecution as revenge to Andrei for his opposition-mindedness and civil activities, also aimed at intimidating other youth activists. They consider the charges of "espionage" as plainly absurd.

Since the middle of December, the "high treason" case has another suspect – Illia Bahdanau, a member of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy from Navapolatsk. However, Bahdanau is just summonsed to interrogations and confrontations. However, unlike Haidukou, he is not kept in jail.