Businessman Siarhei Botvich, sentenced for "agent activity" and "espionage" in Belarus, has declared a hunger strike

Photo: belsmi.by

— The medicines he needs are not available in Belarus, and his relatives are not allowed to bring him the necessary drugs. A hunger strike for him is a fatal risk, — the source reported, emphasizing that Botvich's decision to go on a hunger strike indicates that he has no other options left.

Siarhei Botvich is a businessman who, although not having Belarusian citizenship, was born and lived in our country. In the 80s, he went to France on a student exchange (he studied at the Minsk Institute of Foreign Languages).

Later he obtained French citizenship, and then Lithuanian. Siarhei was involved in business in Belarus, Russia, France, and Lithuania — primarily tourism and wholesale export of coal from Eastern Europe to the Baltic States and Western Europe.

In 2014, he decided to build a charcoal production plant in his small homeland near Svislach (he was born in the agro-town of Novy Dvor, in the Svislach district of Grodno region). He invested about a million dollars in the project.

At some point, Botvich's business began to unravel. It is unknown what exactly happened, but the coal plant was never built, and a criminal case was initiated against the entrepreneur in June 2018. According to data from "Cyberpartisans" databases, the essence of the criminal case against the man is as follows:

"Botvich Siarhei <…> intentionally, for mercenary motives, not intending to fulfill his obligations, by means of deception and abuse of trust, based on participation in an investment project for the construction of a coal production plant, seized monetary funds of LLC "Erable Group" in the amount of 734 thousand euros."

Proceedings on it were terminated. The reason was the impossibility of carrying out investigative actions, without which a decision on the completion of the preliminary investigation cannot be made (para. 5, part 1, article 246 of the Criminal Procedure Code) — most likely due to the man's being abroad. But not because Botvich fled. This was rather just a legal pretext. In the same year 2018, according to the "Passenger Flow" database, Botvich visited Belarus 19 times, once in 2019, and three times in 2020. The last time he entered Belarus was in 2021, and he was detained.

— Then there were a year and a half in solitary confinement, accusations of working first for French, and then for Lithuanian intelligence. A closed trial. 13 years. Non-recognition of guilt, — those to whom Botvich told his story shared details with "Zerkalo".

According to them, there was no evidence of espionage, except for the words of one witness who "was detained with his family at the Privalka border crossing and directly there was forced by threats to give testimony against Botvich, after which he was allowed to go to Lithuania."

— Siarhei Botvich, already from the "Volchi Nory" colony, appealed with complaints to the General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus, demanding an explanation of the essence of the accusation, as it is nowhere stated what exactly he did. If it's agent activity and espionage, what secret data did he try to obtain? Ultimately, there must be an element of crime for the assigned 13 years. In response, he received a formal reply stating that all these data are secret, and therefore they cannot inform him exactly why he has been imprisoned for so many years, — the released convicts conveyed Botvich's words.

They expressed concern that, given Botvich's health condition, he may indeed have very little time left.

• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 1
• 1
• 0