Chair of Shklou BPF Office Stays behind Bars

15.08.2007. Tags: elections, political persecution, criminal persecution.

The chair of Shklou office of Belarusian People’s Front Party Aliaksandr Fiodarau will stay in jail, at least till the end of the investigation. The prosecutor of Shklou district Ihar Sitnikou denied the lawyer’s petition for change of the restraint to his client.

Mr. Fiodarau is charged with violation of the procedure of wage payment (he allegedly paid wages to ‘men of straw’) and faces up to 6 years of jail with confiscation of property in the case court finds him guilty. Before the arrest he worked at two brick factories in Shklou.

Aliaksandr Fiodarau was detained on 14 June. He had a heart attack and spent the first night in a hospital. Now he is kept in the investigative isolator of Mahiliou. The lawyer states his intention to insist on change of restraint to the political activists.

The chair of Mahiliou regional BPF office Ryhor Kastusiou considers the prosecutor’s refusal to change the restraint as a manifestation of personal hostility. ‘These peculiar relations started as early as 2001. During the presidential election Aliaksandr Fiodarau actively participated in organization of independent monitoring, which the authorities pretty disliked. It seems to be a usual human revenge, misuse of the official powers in relation to a concrete person. On these trifles some people want to shop that representatives of the opposition also violate the law. This is the main aim of the authorities nowadays,’ Kastusiou commented.

At the same time, Ryhor Kastusiou does not rule out that Fiodarau could make some mistakes, because he started heading two brick factories short before the arrest. ‘The scope of his work rapidly increased, that’s why he could miss something’, said Kostuseu.

Mr. Fiodarau is 49 years old. He is an active participant of election campaigns. In 2001 the prosecutor sanctioned his arrest, but soon the activist was released.