On Monday afternoon, Yauhen Yushkevich, a Minsk resident and former investigator, stopped answering his phone. According to his girlfriend, the police were waiting for him not far from the block of flats.
Later on the same day, his defence lawyer Maryia Kolesava-Hudzilina said that Yushkevich was placed in the notorious KGB prison Amerykanka, his place was searched. The man was charged on the basis of the order in which Article 289 of the Criminal Code (‘act of terrorism’) was mentioned, she added.
As reported earlier, Yauhen Yushkevich quit his job at the Belarusian Investigative Committee a few years ago. In 2020, he started contributing to the ByChange project which helped former law enforcement officers find themselves in civilian life.
On November 24, Yauhen Yushkevich was arrested on suspicion of ‘organisation or participating in actions that grossly violate public order’ (Art. 342 of the Criminal Code) and sent to pre-trial detention center Nr 1 on Valadarski Street in Minsk. In December he was released under the written pledge not to leave country.
