English

Haydukow’s charge downgraded

 

The high treason charge against Andrey Haydukow has been replaced with another one, Prosecutor General Alyaksandr Kanyuk told reporters on Friday.

Mr. Kanyuk refused to say what charge the 23-year-old Haydukow was facing and only revealed that the public prosecutor in his case had demanded two years for the accused.

The high treason charge carries penalties ranging from up to 15 years in prison to the death sentence.

Andrey Haydukow, a fifth-year student at the chemical engineering and technology department of Polatsk State University and a fitter in charge of instrumentation at the Naftan oil refinery in Navapolatsk, was arrested in Vitsyebsk on November 8, 2012. He was taken to the detention center of the Committee for State Security (KGB) in Minsk and charged with spying.

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.

Mr. Haydukow, an activist of an unregistered organization called the Union of Young Intellectuals, said in a letter that he was suspected of offering to gather sensitive information about Belarus for the US Central Intelligence Agency.

According to him, the KGB claims that his activities could cause damage to the national security of Belarus and describes them as an attempt to undermine the constitutional system of Belarus and impose a policy that does not meet its national interests. The KGB accuses him of trying to destabilize the social and political situation in Belarus and seeking financial assistance from the CIA through the US embassy in Minsk.

KGB chief Valery Vakulchyk announced in late May that the case against Mr. Haydukow would be held in the Vitsyebsk Regional Court behind closed doors.

General Vakulchyk said that he would not go into detail about the case, but noted that the "defenders" of the accused would change their mind after the trial.

A judgment in the case is expected to be pronounced on July 1. //BelaPAN