Trial Against Siarhey Skrebets to Be Started Today :: Charter'97 :: News

Today on January 16 the Supreme Court starts a criminal action against the opposition activist, former Deputy and leader of the group "Respublika".

The opposition activist who used to be Head of the Parliamentary group "Respublika", Siarhey Skrebets was detained in Minsk on May 15, 2005. Skrebets has been officially charged with three offences: defraud in receiving state loans, illegal commercial activity and planning major bribery. Immediately after his arrest in mid-May the political prisoner was held in the Brest pre-trial detention facility. Later the ex-deputy was transferred to the detention centre in Minsk.

In protest against groundless charges Siarhey Skrebets repeatedly went on hunger strikes, one of which took place in the cell of the Brest detention facility and lasted for 40 days.

The observers agree in pointing out the political background of the criminal action against Siarhey Skrebets. In summer 2004 he took part in a hunger strike of the ‘Republika’ deputies who demanded democratization of election legislation. In 2004 he was one of the initiators of the action devoted to the expiration of the ten-year presidential term of Alyaksandar Lukashenka.

Siarhey Skrebets announced his intention to run in a presidential election on March 19 2006.

On January 16 Siarhey Skrebets’s brother Alyaksandar is also to be tried in court for aiding and abetting in state loan defraud.