Probe reportedly over: Political prisoners Kabanau, Pyatrukhin may stand trial in Brest soon
In a letter published by the newspaper Brestskaya Gazeta, imprisoned blogger Alyaksandr Kabanau says that he and his companion in misfortune Syarhei Pyatrukhin will soon be transferred to a pre-trial detention centre in the Belarusian city of Brest.
During the investigation, the bloggers have been held in the remand prison on Valadarski Street in Minsk.
According to the letter, the criminal case handed to the prosecutor’s office is to be sent to court.
“And soon I will come to your city, to Brest. The case is closed, it went to the prosecutor’s office, and it will be brought to trial soon. Syarhei and I are going to be tried in Brest. So they are expected to transfer us to the pre-trial detention centre in Brest, from where we will be taken to court. So, please attend the hearing together with you acquaintances. But don’t be surprised by our case in which there is no evidence, only some guesswork and fantastic stories. As always, the Belarusian ‘justice’ is very weird, so is their investigation,” Kabanau wrote to a friend.
The letter is dated by December 28, 2020. It is not ruled out that the blogger has been already transported to Brest.
Alyaksandr Kabanau, the then press secretary of Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s local initiative group, was detained on June 15 and placed in a temporary detention centre of Leninski district police department of Brest. A local court arrested blogger him for 15 days. He was accused of participating in an ‘unauthorised mass event’ (Article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences). Then the police raided his parents’ home, and the blogger was transferred to the prison in Minsk.
Syarhei Pyatrukhin, a Brest-based author of YouTube channels People’s Reporter and Youtube Deputies, was also detained in mid June, sentenced to 15 days in jail and taken to the capital city.
Later, the both men were charged under Art. 342 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (organisation and preparation for actions that grossly violate public order). The Belarusian human rights defenders recognised them as political prisoners.
Belsat.eu
