Civil activist from Navapolatsk is suspected of treason

First Deputy of the youth association "Union of Young Intellectuals" Andrei Haidukau was arrested in Viciebsk, on November, 8 and was imprisoned on suspicion of treason.

 On November, 11 Andrei Haidukau was transferred to the KGB investigative isolation ward in Minsk. Within the criminal investigation under Article 356 of the Criminal Code of Belarus a search was carried out in his apartment, his computer as well as the other data carriers was confiscated.

The official commentary of the KGB press-service says that the workers of the Committee “stopped illegal activity of the Belarusan citizen A. Haidukau, who was involved in gathering and transmission of data of a political and economic character to foreign intelligence service”.

“The stated citizen was arrested by the KGB workers the moment he was installing a hiding place with the data that is of interest to the foreign intelligence service”, KGB announces.

“A charge of high treason has been brought against the detainee under Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code; criminal proceedings aimed at revelation of other episodes of his illegal actions have been instituted”, reports the KGB press-service.

Part 1 of Article 356 carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

His relatives are now busy with the search of a lawyer who could represent Andrei Haidukau’s interests during the investigation of the case.

On this case the KGB officials arrested and interrogated an activist of “Belarusan Christian Democracy” Illia Bahdanau from Polatsk. A search in his house was conducted, too, and data carriers were confiscated as well. Young man was put to interrogation in Minsk, but he was released after signing a non-disclosure agreement.

Andrei Haidukau works as a metalworker at “Naftan” oil refinery and is a correspondent student of the Polatsk state university.

"Union of Young Intellectuals" association is a regular participant of the National Platform of the Civil Society Forum. Andrei Haidukau took part in its conferences several times.