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Charge against Byalyatski may be replaced

 

The tax evasion charge against Ales Byalyatski, who is standing trial in Minsk, may be replaced with a charge of acting on behalf of an unregistered organization, suggest associates of the prominent human rights defender.

Speaking in court on Thursday, Public Prosecutor Uladzimir Saykowski asked the judge to postpone the hearing until November 16, saying that he wanted to “seriously” amend the charge against Mr. Byalyatski.

Aleh Hulak, chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, told BelaPAN that it was most likely that the prosecutor would bring a criminal charge of acting on behalf of an unregistered organization against the 49-year-old leader of a human rights group called Vyasna (Spring). “Apparently, the prosecutor has enough evidence to prove that the human rights group has continued operation following its closure by the authorities,” he said.

“The prosecutor asked Mr. Byalyatski a lot of questions that had nothing to do with the case, but I think that we will understand the meaning of those questions after the prosecutor brings a new charge against Byalyatski,” said Mr. Hulak.

Opposition politician Alyaksandr Kazulin, who ran in the March 2006 presidential election and was put in prison following post-election protests, told BelaPAN that the prosecutor`s decision might have been driven by the Lithuanian justice ministry’s recent statement that it had annulled the information about Mr. Byalyatski`s accounts in Lithuania provided to the Belarusian authorities on the basis of a legal assistance agreement earlier this year.

The prosecutor read out the statement at the Thursday court session, said Dr. Kazulin.

“It obviously means that the prosecutor has no case any longer,” he noted. ]

Dr. Kazulin also suggested that Mr. Byalyatski might be charged with acting on behalf of an unregistered organization, expressing fears that the activist would anyway be convicted in his trial. “This is a show trial, a public flogging for human rights activities aimed at keeping others from them,” he said.

Mr. Byalyatski, who is also vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, has been held in a detention center in Minsk since August 4.

On August 12, he was formally charged with large-scale tax evasion, an offense that carries a penalty of a “restricted freedom” term of up to five years or a prison term of three to seven years.

The charge stems from information about Mr. Byalyatski’s bank accounts abroad, which was provided by authorities in Lithuania and Poland.

Mr. Byalyatski’s associates insist that the money in his bank accounts abroad should not be viewed as his personal income, as it was contributed by various foundations and intended to finance Vyasna’s activities.

A number of foreign human rights activists had planned to attend the trial but the Belarusian authorities denied entry visas to them. //BelaPAN