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Haydukow’s charge may be changed

The high treason charge against Andrey Haydukow may be replaced with another one, Valery Vakulchyk, head of the Committee for State Security (KGB), said during a news conference in Minsk on June 19.

“It’s not a fact that Haydukow will stand trial under Article 356,” he said, without elaborating.

Mr. Vakulchyk assured reporters that they would receive all “necessary information” about the trial after it was over, and that only “closed issues” would not be released to the public.

He said that Judge Halina Urbanovich would decide for herself when to pronounce her judgment, and expressed confidence that it would be impartial.

The closed-door trial began in the Vitsyebsk Regional Court on June 12.

Andrey Haydukow, a fifth-year student at the chemical engineering and technology department of Polatsk State University and a fitter in charge of instrumentation at the Naftan oil refinery in Navapolatsk, was arrested in Vitsyebsk on November 8, 2012. He was taken to the KGB jail in Minsk and charged with spying.

KGB spokesman Alyaksandr Antanovich announced on November 13 that Mr. Haydukow had "gathered and passed political and economic information on the instructions of a foreign intelligence agency," and that he had been caught in the act of making a dead drop.

The 23-year old Haydukow says in a letter that he is suspected of offering to gather sensitive information about Belarus for the US Central Intelligence Agency.

According to him, the KGB claims that his activities could cause damage to the national security of Belarus and describes them as an attempt to undermine the constitutional system of Belarus and impose a policy that does not meet its national interests. The KGB accuses him of trying to destabilize the social and political situation in Belarus and seeking financial assistance from the CIA through the US embassy in Minsk. //BelaPAN