Yauhen Kanstantsinau: "After the visit of plainclothes men I had to quit job"
Navapolatsk
activist Yauhen Kanstantsinau, head of the youth association "Union of
Young Intellectuals", was the first who told reporters that on November 8 the
Union’s deputy chairman Andrei Haidukou was arrested in Vitsebsk. The
KGB accused Andrei Haidukou of intending to conclude an agreement with foreign
intelligence services. Yauhen
Kanstantsinau himself was visited by "people in civilian clothes".
"They
came twice. First time – after my interview for the Belsat TV channel
concerning the detention of Andrei Haidukou. They asked what kind of person I
am, whether there were any complaints. Then they came again, and my manager
told me directly: "You'd better leave yourself".
Yauhen Kanstantsinau
was a security guard in a shop in Minsk. A
year ago, he was fired from the Navapolatsk-based company "Naftan" –
after his arrest during the campaign of silent protests.
Yauhen
Kanstantsinau says the attention by the secret services is linked to the arrest
of, who is currently held in the KGB’s Minsk jail. He
is facing criminal charges under Par. 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of
the Republic of Belarus ("treason through intelligence activities").
According
to independent media, another acquaintance of Andrei Haidukou was questioned in
this case – Polatsk coordinator of the organizing committee for the creation of
the Belarusian Christian Democracy Ilya Bahdanau. However,
Bahdanau was released soon after the arrest, having undertaken obligations on the
secrecy of the investigation.