20.08.2009 Businesswoman tortured by police, says Belarusian Deputy Prosecutor General

Aliaksei Stuk, vice-head of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus, has officially admitted that the arrest of entrepreneur Sviatlana Dvaraninava was accompanied by grave legal violations. According to Mrs.Dvaraninava, she has received an official reply, stating that upon completion of a special scrutiny Deputy Prosecutor General admitted that her rights had been violated during Mrs.Dvaraninava’s arrest in 2004 – she was illegally compelled to testify against herself and deprived of food and water for two days, which is considered as torture by the International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Mr.Stuk also said the person responsible for the abuse has been dismissed.

20.08.2009 Yury Lyavonau: “Businessmen, don’t be silent! They won’t let you be!”

Businessman Yury Lyavonau held his first press conference after the release from the Minsk pre-trial detention center.

Yury Lyavonau couldn’t comment on instigating new criminal cases against him and his colleagues at the today’s press conference, because he had signed a non-disclosure agreement. Nevertheless, he called all accusations “absurd” and “ungrounded”.

He connects the change of the measure of restraint with the increased attention of the mass media, embassies of the European Union and the US to the case of entrepreneurs. “No doubts, it has played its role, because the investigation hasn’t become more liberal,” Lyavonau noted.

10.08.2009 Vaukavusk entrepreneur Yury Liavonau released from jail till trial

As said to BelaPAN by his daughter, Yury Liavonau got home on 8 August at 4.30 p.m. Mikalai Autukhovich and Uladzimir Asipenka are still kept in pre-trial prison #1 in Minsk.

10.08.2009 Investigation into case of political prisoner Uladzimir Asipenka extended for 2 months

The investigation into the case of one of three entrepreneurs from Vaukavysk Uladzimir Asipenka has been extended to two months. Daughter of the political prisoner Liudmila Asipenka told about it on 10 August.

10.08.2009 Entrepreneur Mikalai Charnavus punished for serving free dinner

Mikalai Charnavus got a warning from the sanitary epidemiological service of Baranavichy for organizing food handouts at a town market.

29.07.2009 Authorities planning to make entrepreneurs’ trial closed, says Aleh Volchak

The authorities are doing their best to make the trial of the three Vaukavyssk entrepreneurs Mikalai Autukhovich, Yury Liavonau and Uladzimir Asipenka a closed one, said lawyer and ex-investigator Aleh Volchak during a press-conference on 28 July in Minsk. ‘With the preliminary investigation being carried out in secret, with the lawyers having been forced to sign a pledge of secrecy, I suppose that the trial will be a closed one. This is what their tactics are about,’ said Mr.Volchak.

08.07.2009 Baranavichy: legal lynching of beaten entrepreneur Volha Minko

On 6 July the court of Baranavichy and Baranavichy district considered the administrative case against the entrepreneurs Volha Minko, brought under Article 23.4 of the Administrative Code – ‘insubordination to an official on duty’.

08.07.2009 Minsk: Afghan war veteran Kanstantsin Ulanau arrested in connection with Mikalai Autukhovich’s case

On 8 June the Afghan war veteran Kanstantsin Ulanau was detained by officers of the Chief directorate on organized crime combat of the Interior Ministry of Belarus.

01.07.2009 Activists of ‘European Belarus’ arrested for action in support of Mikalai Autukhovich

Maxim Viniarski and Uladzimir Kumets spent the night at Tsentralny district police department of Minsk.

26.06.2009 Emmanuel Zeltser stops hunger-strike till 30 June

According to information of the lawyer Zmitser Harachka, the American businessman Emmanuel Zetser, currently serving a prison term in Mahiliou prison, has stopped his hunger-strike of protest till 30 June. The layer refused from commenting on this step of his client.

15.06.2009 Maxim Dashuk sentenced to 15 months of personal restraint

Participant of the ‘process of 14’, prisoner of conscience Maxim Dashuk has been sentenced to 15 months of personal restraint without direction to open prison facility.

27.05.2009 Investigation of businessmen’s case to be extended

According to the human rights activist Aleh Volchak, the investigation of the case against the three businessmen from Vaukavysk Mikalai Autukhovich, Yury Liavonau and Uladzimer Asipenka may be extended for another month. He also said Autukhovich had been interrogated on 26 May. Investigator Vital Kukharchyk mentioned illegal possession of explosives and firearms, which are likely to be added to the list of charges against the entrepreneurs. At the same time, the human rights activist thinks ‘the investigation lacks airtight evidence against the accused.’ ‘Had they had the evidence, the case would have reached the court, which is what the businessmen insist on,’ said Mr.Volchak.

22.05.2009 Human rights activists issue statement on cases of Autukhovich, Liavonau and Asipenka

Statement on the cases of M.Autukhovich, Y.Liavonau and U.Asipenka 22 May 2009 Human rights activists are concerned about the violation of the rights of Mikalai Autukhovich, Yury Liavonau and Uladzimer Asipenka, who are kept under arrest for their alleged involvement in the arson facts in Vaukavysk in 2004. Human rights activists stress that the periods of the preliminary investigation are dragged out. The businessmen have been in a pre-trial detention center since February 2009. Since then the investigation has been repeatedly prolonged. Meanwhile, the investigators fail to carry out any investigative actions. Thus, the legality of their imprisonment seems absolutely groundless.

05.05.2009 Police don’t know what to do with detained entrepreneurs

On 5 May at about 10.40 a.m. the head of the entrepreneurs’ organization Perspective Anatol Shumchanka and his deputies Viktar Chaikouski and Volha Krumina were detained by the police in Kasmanautau Strip while getting out of the car.

29.04.2009 Businessmen apply for registration again

According to www.belaruspartizan.org, the Republican Public Association ‘For the Free Development of Entrepreneurship’ is going to hold a constituent assembly in May. Viktar Harbachou, head of the Ukraine-based Belarusian NGO, says they are going ‘to legalize their relations with the Belarusian government.’ ‘The main objective of the upcoming congress is regular legal activities by the organization in Belarus. We understand that we are out of favour with the regime. Still, we are going to test the so-called ‘liberalization.’ – says Mr.Harbachou.