Closed hearings on "espionage case" against Haidukou being at Vitsebsk Regional Court
At 10 a.m. the hearings on the case of
Andrei Haidukou, 23-year-old Navapolatsk resident, who is accused of
"high treason", started at the Vitsebsk Regional
Court.
9:30 am. The guards of the Vitsebsk Regional Court
didn't let a correspondent of Radio "Liberty" to the trial
of Andrei Haidukou.
Police major told the journalist that
Judge Halina Urbanovich decided that the trial was to be lead in
closed sessions. The major was unable to answer the question why the
order of of the decision-taking was violated – according to the law
the court may declare a closed trial after asking the opinions of all
the parties, after the beginning of the hearing.
All other
people who came to the trial weren't let in the court building
either. About ten police officers in civvies stood near the court.
Human rights activists Tatsiana Seviarynets and Pavel Levinau arrived
to the court entrance. A police car drove in the court
yard.
According to Haidukou's counsels (one from Vitsebsk, the
other – from Minsk), the trial will be held for 5 days. The
surnames of the counsels aren't told to the public.
9:45 a.m.
Senior lieutenant Andrei Kamakh prohibited journalists to take photo
and video shots, threatening to take them the police department.
Tatsiana Seviarynets read a letter received from Haidukou the day
before (RFE/RL).
10:21 a.m. One of Haidukou's counsels was let
in the court building. Andrei Haidukou may have been taken to the
court too. Policemen and people in mufti hampered the work of
journalists, prohibiting them to take photos outside the court.
Beings asked for the reasons they rudely answered that otherwise the
journalists would be detained and taken to the police department.
("Nasha Niva")
No politicians or human rights
defenders came to the trial from Minsk. There are three human rights
defenders from "Viasna" and the Vitsebsk human rights
defender Pavel Levinau (Belarusian Helsinki Committee).
10.37
a.m. The journalists tried to take a comment comment from Pavel
Levinau. They were approached by a man who pretended to be deaf and
dumb and hampered their work, behaving inadequately and showing by
gestures that it was prohibited to make photo or video shots.
Police Major Vital Fralou stated: "I again warn you, it
is prohibited to make shots". A police officer grabbed the
camera of a journalist of "Nasha Niva". ("Nasha
Niva")
11.05 a.m. Pavel Levinau went out of the court
building. He stated that the ad board contained a message according
to which the hearings on the trial would be held on 12 and 13 June,
but didn't mention that the hearings would be closed. Levinau filed a
complaint to the head of the court. He also intends to appeal the
prohibition on photo and video coverage of the action by journalists
to the prosecutor's office.
***
Volha Haidukova is going
to be a witness at the trial of her son. Andrei's lawyers intend to
file such a petition at the trial. This is the only chance for the
mother to see her son in the conditions of the closed trial. Earlier,
she thrice applied for permission to meet with her son and received
refusals from the KGB investigator Aleh Barysevich and Judge of the
Vitsebsk Regional Court Halina Urbanovich, who was appointed to lead
the trial.
Andrei Haidukou's mother also reports about
recurrent problems with mail correspondence during the son's 7-month
pre-trial detention. Moreover, the counsels weren't always able to
meet with Andrei. Volha Haidukova was the only relative who was
questioned in the son's case. She doesn't know how many of his
friends gave testimonies for KGB.
At a certain period of
time, the case included another suspect – an activist of the
organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Illia
Bahdanau. However, he didn't stay in this status for a long time and
at present has the status of a witness.
In general, the
friends and relatives doubt that Andrei Haidukou, an ordinary worker
of the Navapolatsk enterprise "Naftan", could be engaged in
espionage. First of all, his work was not related to any secret
information of national importance. Many people believe that his
arrest may be connected to his opposition views: he took part in the
work of the electoral teams of democratic candidates during
elections, including the team of Andrei Sannikau. He also
participated in the "silent protests". Prior to his arrest
he was preparing documents to register the civic organization "Union
of Young Intellectuals" in Navapolatsk. Immediately after his
arrest his home and working place were searched, the same was done to
Illia Bahdanau. Though the latter one had the status of a suspect for
a certain period of time, he remained at large all the time.
Andrei
Haidukou was arrested on 8 November in Minsk. According to the
official information of the KGB it was allegedly done "while he
was making a hiding with information which could may be relevant to
foreign intelligence services". Since then, he was kept in
custody: mostly in the KGB remand prison in Minsk with the exception
of one month for which he was transferred to the Vitsebsk remand
prison, and the last days, when he was again transferred to Vitsebsk
for the trial.
According to his mother, a few days ago Andrei
was ill and even could solicit for the postponement of the trial.
However, now his health is gradually returning to the normal state,
though the remnants of the cold are still being felt.
Volha
Haidukova repeatedly stated that she wanted the trial to be open, as
far as Andrei and his family didn't have anything to hide. She also
wants to know for what reasons Andrei is charged with espionage. The
same was demanded by human rights defenders.
However, a week
before the trial the Chairman of the KGB Valery Vakulchyk stated that
the trial would most likely take place behind closed doors. Part 1 of
Article 356, "treason to the state in the form of intelligence
work", envisages 7-15 years of imprisonment.
