English

Mother insists that Andrey Haydukow is innocent

The mother of Andrey Haydukow, a young opposition activist charged with high treason, said during a round-table conference in Minsk on Thursday that her son had not committed any crime.

Volha Haydukow said that she had been denied a meeting with the jailed son since his arrest. The parents have not received any phone calls from him either. "There's only an opportunity to write letters," she said.

"We still cannot understand what is actually happening in our son's case," she said. "Yes, we knew that he had pro-opposition views, that his activity was disliked by authorities. But what does it have to do with the CIA? Andrey always maintained that he did nothing illegal. What happened became a complete surprise for him, one can see it in his letters."

Ms. Haydukow expressed gratitude to all people who offered support to the family.

"A sane person will never believe the accusations against my son," she stressed.

Andrey Haydukow, 23, was arrested in Vitsyebsk on November 8, 2012. He was immediately taken to the KGB jail in Minsk and charged with spying.

At the end of the month, he was transferred to a detention facility in Vitsyebsk. On December 22, he was brought back to Minsk and placed in the detention center on Valadarskaha Street. Five days later, he was moved to the KGB jail.

KGB spokesman Alyaksandr Antanovich announced on November 13 that Mr. Haydukow had "gathered and passed political and economic information on the instructions of a foreign intelligence agency," and that he had been caught in the act of making a dead drop. //BelaPAN