Counsel not allowed to meet Andrei Haidukou again
Andrei Haidukou
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.
