Supreme Court rejects appeal by Andrei Haidukou

The Supreme Court considered today an appeal by Andrei Haidukou and ruled to uphold the verdict.

On July 1, in a closed trial Andrei Haidukou was found guilty of attempting to establish contacts with a foreign intelligence service with no evidence of high treason.

The criminal charges were brought against Andrei Haidukou in early November 2012, when he was arrested by the State Security Committee and placed in the KGB detention center. On November 13, 2012 the State Security Committee’s press-service said the KGB had stopped the illegal activity of the citizen of the Republic of Belarus, who was engaged by a foreign intelligence in the collection and transmission of information of political and economic nature. The arrested person faced charges under Art. 356, Part 1 of the Criminal Code (high treason in the form of intelligence activities). Later, already during the trial, the charges were reclassified to Part 1, Article 14 and Article 356-1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.

Human rights defenders believe that the sentencing of Andrei Haidukou is “groundless and politically motivated, as it is largely aimed at increasing the role and significance of the KGB in the State using methods that are unacceptable in a democratic society, while deprivation of liberty was used in violation of the right to a fair trial, and other rights and freedoms guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the duration of detention is clearly disproportionate (inadequate) to the offense of which the person has been convicted.”