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Owner of elite club in Minsk charged with running brothel

 

The owner of Dankoff Club, an elite entertainment center in downtown Minsk, has been formally charged with "creating conditions for prostitution," Alyaksandr Herasimaw, a spokesman for the Minsk office of the Investigative Committee of Belarus, told BelaPAN on Friday.

Yury Dankaw was placed in a detention center pending an investigation.

The 49-year-old Dankaw was arrested on September 4 on suspicion of operating a brothel in his club. The offense carries between seven and 10 years in prison.

Criminal proceedings were earlier instituted against the art director and the administrator of Dankoff Club.

Starting 2006, the two men reportedly provided rooms in Dankoff Club for sexual encounters and used prostitution to make a profit. The art director of the club was taken into custody.

The police search of Dankoff Club on September 4 began with policemen coming up to Mr. Dankaw and showing him some paper, opposition activist Tsimafey Dranchuk, who was present in the club, earlier told BelaPAN.

The officers refused to give Mr. Dankaw any explanations about his arrest and asked the visitors to leave, Mr. Dranchuk said.

Dankoff Club is one of the largest entertainment centers in Minsk that includes a casino, a striptease club and a Spa salon for men.

Yury Dankaw sought to run in the 2001 presidential election but failed to collect the required 100,000 ballot-access signatures.