Aliaksandr Fiaduta diagnosed with acute heart failure in detention, human rights defenders report

December 27. Political scientist, journalist, and literary critic Aliaksandr Fiaduta was diagnosed with acute heart failure. He had an attack of angina and arrhythmia in the pre-trial detention center No. 1 on Valadarskaha Street in Minsk, Viasna Human Rights Center reports.

According to human rights activists, Fiaduta announced a “medical strike” in protest against restrictions on correspondence with relatives and refuses to take pills that reduce the risk of a heart attack.

On December 14, Fiaduta’s wife Maryna Šybko informed BPN that her husband is held in a crowded 15-bedded cell following his transfer from the KGB pre-trial detention center to the pre-trial detention center No. 1.

On April 12, 2021, the contact to Aliaksandr Fiaduta was lost in Moscow. A missing person report was filed to the Presnenski Department of Internal Affairs of the Russian capital.

On April 13, the Belarusian KGB announced Fiaduta’s detention of “as part of the investigation of a criminal case under Art. 108 of the Criminal Code (detention on direct suspicion of committing a crime).”

On April 17, Aliaksandr Lukašenka announced the detention of a group that allegedly was planning an assassination attempt on him and his children, linking its activities to the US intelligence services.

On April 21, the head of the KGB Investigation Department, Kanstancin Byčak, announced the charges under part 1 of Art. 357 of the Criminal Code (conspiracy to seize state power in an unconstitutional manner).

Together with Fiaduta, the defendants in this case are Yury Ziankovič, Ryhor Kastusioŭ, Volha Halubovič, Dzmitry Ščyhielski, Aliaksandr Perapečka, Paviel Kulažanka, Vital Makaranka, and Ihar Makar. Ziankovič and Kastusioŭ are in custody, the rest reside abroad.