Security services try to discredit the political prisoner by releasing damaging publications in media.

Aleh Vouchak, the head of the human rights organisation “Legal Assistance to Citizens”, believes that Andrej Hajdukou is innocent. He said in an interview for charter97.org that the activist must be released immediately.

“I’ve read an interview with Aliaksandr Sidarovich, the first deputy prosecutor for the Vitebsk region, in “Komsomolsk Truth”. He spoke about details of the ‘spy case’. I doubt that his words are true. Their version, whcih looks so nice, raises many questions. The main of them is: Why was the trial held behind closed doors?

The KGB recently informed that Andrej Hajdukou was arrested as he was putting a dead drop with secret information. It turns out that the security services installed the dead drop and, according to the deputy prosecutor, induced Hajdukou to open it and get the money from it.

It looks like ‘investigative experiments’ that are often organised by the law-enforcement agencies in relation to officials in bribery cases to induce them to crimes,” Aleh Vouchak said.

The head of “Legal Assistance to Citizens” thinks that the authorities use publications in the media to damage Hajdukou’s image.

“The interview with the deputy prosecutor may be called a provocation against Hajdukou. Its aim is to cast Hajdukou in a negative light. They do it in fear that Hajdukou may be recognised as a political prisoner. They try not to allow it,” – Aleh Vouchak said.

The human rights activist notes that the interview with the deputy prosecutor shows that Andrej Hajdukou didn’t commit a crime of which he was found guilty. It remains unclear what information he could have given to foreign security service.

“As a lawyer, I find it difficult to comment on this text: It resembles the main character in Chekhov’s story ‘Vanka’ who sent his letter ‘to grandfather in the village. In our century of information technologies the KGB’s operations remain on the level of the early 20th century. I have the impression that they didn’t even watch modern spy films. To follow their logic, 50% of Belarusians can be tried because many people send statistical data, which can be easily found on the internet, to their friends in America. It’s absolutely not clear why Hajdukou poses such a thread that he must be jailed for 18 months.

It can be understood from the interview that the young man didn’t pass information to anyone. It’s unclear what he could have given to the fictitious CIA agent. There’s no motive, no means to pass the ‘secret information’.

I think somebody just tried to receive a promotion. But it turned into a trap for prosecution agencies and the KGB. We don’t know who framed them. Maybe it was a rival organisation, for example the Interior Ministry.

I think that Hajdukou is innocent. He didn’t violate any law; he wasn’t involved in a treason; he didn’t have contacts with foreign secret services. He must be recognised as a political prisoner,” Aleh Vouchak said.

The human rights activist guesses why Andrej Hajdukou was tried behind closed doors.

“The interview with the deputy prosecutor shows that people in the courtroom would have laughed if the trial had been open. The judge couldn’t have conducted the trial. We already saw it at the trial against Autukhovich, when a prosecutor said that he had tried to fire a broken grenade launcher at the house which was too far for the weapon. This time the security services wanted to hide their mistakes and lack of professional skills. Anyway, we should take this case seriously, because similar trials may occur in the future. We mustn’t forget that other people may find themselves in the Hajdukou’s shoes. He was imprisoned illegally. We must struggle to release him and other political prisoners,” the human rights defender underlined.

On July 1, opposition activist Andrej Hajdukou was found guilty of an attempt to establish contacts with foreign intelligence services. The verdict was pronounced by the Vitebsk regional court.

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