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Public prosecutor demands five years in prison for fashion designer Sasha Varlamaw

 

The public prosecutor in the trial of Sasha (Alyaksandr) Varlamaw on Monday demanded a five-year prison sentence for the prominent fashion designer.

In particular, Anton Zaharowski suggested that Nadzeya Navitskaya, a judge of the Leninski District Court in Minsk who is presiding over the trial, find the 58-year-old man guilty of fraud, theft, misappropriation of property, tax evasion and abuse of office, a representative of the city prosecutor's office told BelaPAN.

Held in custody since May 20, 2011, Mr. Varlamaw went on trial this past February.

He is facing a variety of accusations connected with his activity as the director of a fashion and modeling agency. In particular, he is accused of pocketing almost €25,000 in public funds provided for Belarusians' trips to fashion shows abroad. In addition, the prosecution believes that Mr. Varlamaw told models traveling abroad for fashion shows to compensate him for their travel and living expenses, while in fact the expenses had been paid for by the government and sponsors.

He is also accused of evading millions of rubels in taxes by accepting off-the-books payments from models for their training.

As many as 353 people were given the status of victim in the case. Hundreds more were interviewed in the capacity of witnesses.

Mr. Varlamaw denied the accusations at the beginning of the trial.

In February, the trial was interrupted for several days for Mr. Varlamaw to have a magnetic resonance imaging scan. The man underwent a spinal surgery in July 2012 and was registered as having a second-degree disability last fall. He complained that it was difficult for him to stand or sit during the trial. // BelaPAN