Prosecutor’s Office Refused to Release Syarhei Skrabets. Second Month Of Political Prisoner’s Hunger Strike :: Charter'97 :: News

Activist of Belarusian opposition, former deputy and leader of deputy group Syarhei Skrabets, continues hunger strike in Brest remand prison for the 32nd day. In this way the political prisoner protests against illegal arrest and groundless accusation. Meanwhile, on June 14 Brest Prosecutor’s Office refused to change the restraint measure for him. The lawyer of the politician, Mikhail Khomich, told that Syarhei Skrabets is intended to be on hunger strike “till the end”.

According to Radio Svaboda, the lawyer Mikhail Khomich is going to lodge a new appeal, this time to the court. The necessary documents are to be submitted to the court on June 15-16.

On June 16 his mother and wife are going to visit him. The family of the political prisoner had addressed him for several times with a request to stop hunger strike, for fear of health problems. The same appeals have been made by members of deputy group “Respublika” Valery Fralou and Uladzimir Parfyanovich. The chairman of the Council of Belarusian People’s Republic, Ivonka Survilla, also addressed a request to Syarhei Skrabets, to stop hunger strike. Analogous appeal was sent by the leadership of the United Civil Party.
Syarhei Skrabets was detained on May 15, 2005, and on the same day he was transferred to the remand prison of Brest. He was charged with violation of the two articles of the Criminal Code (Artile 13 Part 1 – preparation for a crime, and Article 431 Part 2 – giving bribe). S.Skrabets allegedly wanted to give a bribe of USD 30,000 to officials of the Prosecutors’ office.

It is not the first criminal action against the oppositionist. In April, 2003, first criminal proceedings were initiated against MP Skrabets. He was charged with helping defraud Belarusbank of more than $500,000 million in loans, while serving as director general of the BelBabayevsky Trading House, and creation of a criminal group. In October, 2004, he petitioned Russian President Vladimir Putin to grant him political asylum, however his petition was refused.

The observers note collectively, that the criminal prosecution of Skrabets in politically motivated, as he is one of the active oppositionists. In summer 2004 he took part in the hunger strike of the “Respublika” deputies, who demanded democratization of the Electoral Code, and release of one of the Belarusian opposition leaders, Mikhail Marynich. In 2004 he was one of the organizers of the protest action timed to the end of the 10-year term of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.