Day 45 - is Siargey Skrabets keeping on hunger striking? :: Charter'97 :: News

Today it is 45 days since former Deputy and the Deputy group “Republic” leader, active oppositionist Siargey Skrabets was detained in Minsk and transferred to Brest. Right after the detention he went on protest hunger strike. There is no definite information that the hunger strike was stopped.

As Radio Liberty reports, June 27 the parents of the former Parliamentarian received a letter from their son. This time the message from jail was penetrated with optimism: Siargey started making juice from beetroot, he suffered less from the headache, he slept better…

Aliaxandar Skrabets hopes his brother has really started consuming juice. At the same time Skrabets Jr. concedes that this is not an attempt to stop the hunger strike - Siargey Skrabets may be planning to refuse from juice later and to pass on again to the water only and thus to keep on his action as long as possible. And as to the contents of the letter, Aliaxandar Skrabets suspects that his brother deliberately glosses over his actual physical state not to trouble his parents.

The first case against Siargey Skrabets was initiated in April 2003 - he was accused of swindling credits out of the State when presiding the firm “BelBabayeuski”. As regards the second case, the investigation claims the former deputy to be guilty of instigating a dweller of the town of Biaroza to give the officials of the Brest prosecutor’s office and Regional Court a bribe of $30000 in order to force them assist judgement of acquittal for dweller of the village of Alshany (Pinsk District) Mr. Gryb. Later Mr. Gryb was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment for committing grave crimes. Relatives of the wife of Siargey Skrabets live in this village.

Last summer, Siargey Skrabets took part in the hunger strike of the Deputies who demanded to democratize the electoral legislature. This April, he asked the President of Russia for a political asylum, but was refused. And moreover, in April the Belarusian Television reported about the detention of a currier who was delivering $ 200000 from Vilnius - allegedly for financing Siargey Skrabets’ political activity.