Klimov transferred to pretrial detention center on Volodarskogo Street :: Charter'97 :: News

Politician Andrei Klimov, currently facing two separate criminal charges, has been transferred from a district police department to the pretrial detention center on Volodarskogo Street.

The prominent opposition figure was arrested last week on a charge of staging an unauthorized anti-government rally in March but could not be brought to the city’s two pretrial detention centers because the police could not find his passport, activist Timofei Dranchuk told BelaPAN.

Igor Prokhorenkov, an investigator in charge of the case, made several phone calls on Monday night to request Mr. Klimov’s wife, Tatyana Leonovich, to find her husband’s passport, as security guards would not convoy him to a detention center without the document.

“Early on April 26 the police managed to solve the problem after receiving a document substituting the passport from the passport and visa office of the Oktyabrsky district police department,” Mr. Dranchuk said.

According to the activist, Mr. Klimov was brought to the pretrial detention center under convoy of prison guards at around 11:30 a.m.

Mr. Klimov, who is accused of libel against Aleksandr Lukashenko under Part 2 of the Criminal Code’s Article 367 and of insulting the head of state under Part 1 of Article 368 in his three books and a leaflet, was to be present in the Pervomaisky District Court on April 25 to hear the judgment on the case. However, the hearing had to be canceled, as Mr. Klimov, held in custody, could not appear in the courtroom.