Court upholds acquittal of Minsk Wheeled Tractor Plant’s chief engineer
Zakhar SHCHARBAKOW, naviny.by
21 August 2019, 10:41
A panel of judges of the Minsk City Court on Friday turned down an appeal by the Prosecutor General’s Office against the acquittal of Andrey Halavach, chief engineer at Minsk Wheeled Tractor Plant (MZKT).
The Prosecutor General’s Office wanted the city court to overturn the acquittal and order a retrial in the case, as it believed that the district court judge’s conclusions were “inconsistent with the factual circumstances of the case” and “considerable violations of the criminal procedure law” had been committed during the trial.
The appeal said that the judge had failed to “give comprehensive, full and objective consideration” to the evidence presented in the trial.
Speaking at the appeal hearing, prosecutor Yury Sharsnyow insisted that the district judge had failed to consider some evidence and erroneously declared some witness testimony to be inconsistent and conflicting.
Mr. Halavach, who spent 50 months in custody before his acquittal last month, said that he had never taken bribes. “I know what I did and what I did not,” he said. “Everything that I did was in the interests of the company.”
The executive expressed anger at the Prosecutor General’s Office’s decision to contest his acquittal.
Mr. Halavach was arrested in May 2015. Back then, he was accused of a total of 80 counts of bribery.
In March 2017, a judge of the Frunzenski District Court in Minsk found him guilty of bribery and sentenced him to eight years in prison. Mr. Halavach was alleged to have accepted bribes totaling 180,000 rubels from representatives of an economic entity between 2011 and 2015 in exchange for assisting them in supplying equipment to MZKT.
Mr. Halavach appealed the sentence and the Minsk City Court ordered a retrial.
A different judge of the Frunzenski District Court acquitted Mr. Halavach on all counts on February 5, 2018, but he was immediately rearrested in the courtroom as a suspect in a new bribery case.
He was acquitted and released on July 19, 2019.
Speaking earlier this week, Alyaksandr Lukashenka blasted law enforcement agencies for detaining the executive for more than four years.
“I don’t understand how a person can be arrested, put into a detention center and held within four walls for four years before being released due to a lack of evidence,” he said at a meeting with Ivan Naskevich, head of the Investigative Committee of Belarus.
21 August 2019, 10:41
Photo: BelaPAN
The Prosecutor General’s Office wanted the city court to overturn the acquittal and order a retrial in the case, as it believed that the district court judge’s conclusions were “inconsistent with the factual circumstances of the case” and “considerable violations of the criminal procedure law” had been committed during the trial.
The appeal said that the judge had failed to “give comprehensive, full and objective consideration” to the evidence presented in the trial.
Speaking at the appeal hearing, prosecutor Yury Sharsnyow insisted that the district judge had failed to consider some evidence and erroneously declared some witness testimony to be inconsistent and conflicting.
Mr. Halavach, who spent 50 months in custody before his acquittal last month, said that he had never taken bribes. “I know what I did and what I did not,” he said. “Everything that I did was in the interests of the company.”
The executive expressed anger at the Prosecutor General’s Office’s decision to contest his acquittal.
Mr. Halavach was arrested in May 2015. Back then, he was accused of a total of 80 counts of bribery.
In March 2017, a judge of the Frunzenski District Court in Minsk found him guilty of bribery and sentenced him to eight years in prison. Mr. Halavach was alleged to have accepted bribes totaling 180,000 rubels from representatives of an economic entity between 2011 and 2015 in exchange for assisting them in supplying equipment to MZKT.
Mr. Halavach appealed the sentence and the Minsk City Court ordered a retrial.
A different judge of the Frunzenski District Court acquitted Mr. Halavach on all counts on February 5, 2018, but he was immediately rearrested in the courtroom as a suspect in a new bribery case.
He was acquitted and released on July 19, 2019.
Speaking earlier this week, Alyaksandr Lukashenka blasted law enforcement agencies for detaining the executive for more than four years.
“I don’t understand how a person can be arrested, put into a detention center and held within four walls for four years before being released due to a lack of evidence,” he said at a meeting with Ivan Naskevich, head of the Investigative Committee of Belarus.
