Andrej Hajdukou sentenced to 1.5 years in prison

(being updated) The activist of opposition was found guilty of attempting to establish contacts with foreign intelligence.

Viciebsk regional court passed the verdict on Andrej Hajdukou’s case today, Radio Svaboda reports.

The consideration of the case of the activist from Navapolatsk was carried out in a secretive mode. The 23-year old worker from Naftan plant was initially accused of violating to articles: part 1 of the article 14 “Attempted crime” and part 1 of the article 356 “State treason”.

On 19 June the KGB chairman Valer Vakulchyk claimed that the opposition activist could be sentenced according to a different article.

On 20 June the court interrogated Andrej Hajdukou’s mother as a witness. The woman saw her son for the first time in eight months, which he spent in custody after having been detained on 8 November 2012.

At the court’s proceeding on Andrej Hajdukou’s case, which took place on 27 June, the state prosecutor asked to punish Hajdukou with 2 years in prison.

The Prosecutor General Aliaksandr Kaniuk informed journalists about that. He did not specify then, to what article the accusation was changed.

According to an official statement by KGB’s press-service, Andrej Hajdukou was detained in Viciebsk, “when he was putting information of interest for foreign special services in a hiding place”.

Relatives and friends of Hajdukou’s do not believe that he could be a spy. They explain the pressure on the part of KGB as caused by his oppositional views and his eagerness to create an international public association “Union of Young Intellectuals” in Navapolatsk.