Political Prisoner Siarhei Skrabiets Charged

24.08.2005.

On 23 August the investigator for particularly important cases of the Republican Procurator's Office Viachaslau Tserakhovich formally brought against the head of the deputy group Respublika of the Chamber of Representatives of the previous convocation, the renowned opposition politician Siarhei Skrabiets. To this end, the investigator visited the prison hospital in Apanskaha Street in Minsk, where the ex deputy is now, reported Radio Liberty.
Aleh Dubaviets, Siarhei Skrabiets's lawyer, confirmed the charges that concern swindling the state out of credits. As regards the charge of encouraged bribery, which was why Mr. Skrabiets was detained, it had been brought against him earlier. Aleh Dubaviets says that Siarhei Skrabiets refuses to testify as before, claiming he is innocent".
Siarhei Skrabiest was transferred on 19 August from the temporary detention center – the so-called Valadarka – to the prison hospital, because his health had taken a turn for the worse: he had developed problems with the kidneys. Aliaxandra, the former deputy's wife, who works as a doctor, believes that these are the consequences of the almost 40 day hunger strike that he husband had kept back in the investigative center of Brest in protest against his arrest. Mrs. Aliaxandra passed her husband the drugs he needed.
We would like to remind you that the former deputy detained on 15 May outside his house in Minsk was taken to Brest Investigative Center. There he went on a protest hunger-strike that lasted almost 40 days. After the republican procurator's office united both cases of the former deputy – swindling the state out of credits and encouraged bribery – into one case, the investigator for particularly important cases Viachaslau Tserakhovich decided to take the man to Minsk.