Andrei Haidukou to stay in KGB prison for another month

The investigative group of Vitsebs Regional KGB Department continues the investigation into the “espionage case”, within the framework of which the 23-year-old worker of the state enterprise “Naftan” Andrei Haidukou is charged with “high treason”. No details of the investigation have been given publicity so far – the case remains a complete secret.

According to Volha Haidukova, the mother of Arrest Haidukou, some information can be received only through his counsel:

“The counsel visited Andrei on 29 March. However, what can he say? That he is alive and healthy, is in a good mood. The counsel went to the remand prison of the KGB on my request. Investigative activities are held very seldom, and he is summonsed there very seldom too. In any case, he doesn’t tell anything as he undertook not to disclose the secret of the investigation. On 8 April the investigation term was extended for another month, for the sixth time already. We don’t know what is happening to Andrei.”

Several months ago Volha Haidukova asked the investigator to allow a meeting with Andrei. However, she was told that she would be allowed to meet him only “after the end of the investigation or before the trial”. She hasn’t taken any attempts to get to the remand prison after this.

“I am just thinking what is going on there? Andrei tried to explain something in his first letters, writing that the charges were absurd and there were falsifications in the case. Later we received several letters with some lines which were crossed out by the censors. Now he writes only about everyday things: he must have understood that we would receive no letters at all otherwise. We also write only about such things: ask what to pass him and what newspapers to subscribe him to. We are not summoned anywhere and I haven’t heard about any summons of his friends for interrogations. Everything is done secretly, but what will be the result? In any case, I will never believe he is guilty. To my mind, some provocation has been staged against him.”

Andrei Haidukou was detained in Vitsebsk on 8 November 2012 – allegedly during making a hind with secret information for foreign security services. The mother cannot imagine that a 23-year-old worker, correspondence student of Polatsk university, could know any state secrets… She thinks that his arrest can be explained only by his civil activities:

“He is very active. He distributed newspapers, was a member of Andrei Sannikau’s election team during the presidential election and supported independent candidate Valiayeva at the local election. He took part in street events, wanted to obtain the state registration for the Union of Young Intellectuals… However, I don’t believe that he had secret information at his disposal!”

As it became known last week, the other suspect on the criminal case, Haidukou’s friend Illia Bahdanau, a member of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy, was returned the status of a witness in the case at the end of March 2013. No restraint was applied towards him, but his apartment and working place were searched.