"Kidnapped" for revenge/ The trial of the son of the Belarusian politician begins

2023-05-26 07:48:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"Kidnapped" for revenge/ The trial of the son of the Belarusian

Years ago, Eduard Babaryka co-founded a Belarusian crowdfunded platform called Uley. He also co-founded several other humanitarian projects, and financed the publication of a five-volume collection in Belarusian of the works of Nobel Prize-winning writer Svetlana Alexievich.

"It's very normal not to be afraid", said Babaryka during the presentation of the collection in Minsk, in 2018. "And, despite everything, do what you think is right and important. It is more normal not to wait for help from another hand and to tell you what to do, it is better to take the initiative in your own hands".

Now, these words of the 33-year-old are being put to the test, as the Belarusian is facing charges of tax evasion, money laundering, organizing mass riots and inciting hatred. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. Arrested in June 2020, he has already spent three years in detention without trial.

"Edik is smart, kind-hearted and inquisitive," said Alyaksandra Zverava, Eduard's girlfriend. "Very fair and takes responsibility for his actions. He sets high standards for himself, and knows how to accept his mistakes."

The account of Eduard Babarykas is a poignant postscript to the national tragedy of the 2020 presidential election, in which Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the authoritarian dictator, declared victory despite compelling evidence of fraud.

The announced results sparked a massive wave of nationwide protests, which were often ruthlessly suppressed.

Amid allegations of abuse and torture, thousands of protesters were jailed. The independent press was closed. Opposition leaders were forced to leave the country. Western nations refused to recognize Lukashenka's legitimacy.

Ninety days

Babaryka, a resident of Minsk and a graduate of the Belarusian State University of Economics, pledged to help his father, Viktar Babaryka, in the spring of 2020 in efforts to defeat longtime leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka through a presidential election campaign .

Former head of Belgazprombank and banker Viktar Babaryka, 59, is also a philanthropist. He launched his campaign in May 2020 for the August election, in which Lukashenka - who has been in power since 1994 after winning many elections deemed undemocratic by Western countries - would run for a term of six.

Babaryka's campaign immediately received high-profile support, and the democratic opposition began to join him. In a poll conducted at the end of May, he received 50 percent of the vote.

The required number of signatures for future presidential candidates is 100,000. Babaryka's team had earned more than 425,000 by mid-June.

Viktar and Eduard were both arrested on June 18, 2020. On July 14, Babaryka's candidacy was rejected by Belarusian election officials. Both were classified as political prisoners by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations.

Viktar was found guilty of bribery and tax evasion in July 2021 and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He dismissed the accusations as political revenge.

In a video his campaign supporters released shortly after his jailing, Viktar asked Eduard to join him in helping him oust Lukashenka.

"Eduard said, 'Okay, I'll give you 90 days of my life,'" Viktar said. "But it's not 90 days of his life. In fact it is clear that he is on the same level as me. He put his life on the line for me. This is a difficult thing for any father to say."

"Eduard was arrested because he is Viktar's son," said Zverava.

Eduard was held in detention run by Belarus' state security agency – still called the KGB – for 18 months after his arrest, which is the maximum period a suspect can be held without trial. However, as the deadline passed, his case was transferred to the Investigative Committee and, apparently, the process has returned to the beginning.

"There is nothing resembling a legal process here," said Uladzimer Pylchanka, Eduard's former lawyer, whose legal credentials were revoked in retaliation for his work on the case. "This man is simply being held in solitary confinement, obviously [with the intention] of putting pressure on his father."

'Fabricating reality'

In 2021, Zverava had spoken to Radio Free Europe about the conditions in which Eduardi was being held.

"They send them to the toilet twice a day," she said. "There are four people in one cell. Some of them smoke. There is almost no ventilation. No sunlight falls."

She said that because of the humidity, Edward's clothes were moldy. He kept his correspondence to a minimum.

However, he still tries to do his best and maintain his positive nature.

"A cell is not much different from the wider world," he wrote stoically in 2022.

"It's always about choosing whether to fall or rise. To succumb to weakness or not to surrender."

He is practicing yoga, chess, reading, meditating and drawing during his time in the cell.

"I'm reading Stephen King's 22.11.63 in English," he wrote in 2021, referring to a novel about a time traveler who tries to stop the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.

"And I'm re-reading [physicist] David Deutsch's The Fabric Of Reality."

After almost two years in prison, Eduardi declared that forgiveness was the key to personal relationships. He took an attitude similar to that of the psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, who wrote: "You can take away everything from a man except one thing: the ultimate freedom - to choose one's attitude in every circumstance, to choose according to your way".

"Prison can be a place that steals life, or it can be a unique opportunity for self-improvement," Edward wrote from prison in 2022. "In both cases, the prison cell remains the same - a room away from the world of external".

The trial of Eduard Babarykas began in Minsk on May 22 of this year.

According to relatives, his prolonged stay in detention and the uncertainty surrounding the charges against him indicate that his arrest was organized by the authorities to put pressure on his father.

"At first, their plan was that if Viktar gave a statement, Eduard would be released," explained Ivan Kravtsov, a former member of Viktar Babaryka's campaign team.

"However, it is clear that he is facing a long sentence"./ Rel