Public prosecutor demands nine years in prison for Dankoff Club owner

The public prosecutor in the trial of Yury Dankaw (Shytsik), the owner of Dankoff Club, an elite entertainment center in Minsk, has suggested sentencing the accused to a nine-year prison term.

The closed-door trial began in the Maskowski District Court in Minsk on September 18.

Mr. Dankaw, who has been in custody since his arrest on September 4, 2012, stands accused of seven criminal offenses, including large-scale tax evasion, the use of prostitution to make a profit, recruitment for prostitution, the production and distribution of pornographic material, and forgery.

Mr. Dankaw allegedly caused 918.1 million rubels ($103,000) worth of damage to the state by evading taxes between January 2007 and September 2012. He is accused of running a brothel in Dankoff Club in 2011 and 2012, advertising pornographic material and screening a pornographic movie in public.

Criminal proceedings were also instituted against the art director and the administrator of Dankoff Club.

The two men allegedly provided rooms in Dankoff Club for sexual encounters and used prostitution to make a profit.

Mr. Dankaw, a former member of the Minsk City Soviet (Council), was a candidate in House of Representatives elections in 2000 and sought to run in a presidential election in 2001 but failed to collect the required 100,000 ballot-access signatures.