Yauhen Poludzen, a former deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, is facing up to 10 years of imprisonment and confiscation of property. According to the investigators, Poludzen repeatedly received money and things of value from interior affairs bodies’ officials for a long time.
Poludzen, who has been in custody since late 2011, has been formally charged with abuse of power or office, exceeding authority and accepting a bribe, Pavel Traulka, spokesman for the Investigative Committee, said. The case has already been sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office, which is to forward the case to a court.
Yauhen Poludzen was detained on December 8, 2011. On December 11 journalist Lyubou Lunyova told Belsat viewers about his arrest: late in the evening armed people came to the top official’s flat. Their lights were on nightlong: probably they wanted to draw the neighbours’ attention and public response, Lunyova supposed.
“Poludzen never used bad language during protest actions”
“Yauhen Poludzen was present at all street protest actions held by opposition and in the course of the presidential elections in 2006 he spoke about inpermissibility of public order violence. He seems to stand out other police officials: for example, he never played the bear. But in the summer of 2011 Poludzen took personal control of the silent protests’ dispersal,” Lunyova reminded.
She stressed that Poludzen belonged to the group of Viktar Sheyman, the State secretary of the Security Council, who was removed from his post after the explosion during the Independence Day celebration on July 3, 2008 in Minsk.
“Aliaksander Lukashenka’s eldest son Viktar is believed to take responsibility for the purge of ranks. He intends to create one more force structure submitted to his department,” the analyst added in her interview to Belsat TV in February, 2011. “It is the KGB officials who have taken new positions in the MIA. KGB is supposed to be totally controlled by Viktar Lukashenka. Moreover, the State Border Committee is kept under his control as well,” she said.
Belsat
