Belarus has sent a request to the competent justice institutions of the United States for legal assistance in the framework of a criminal case on the preparation of a coup d’etat and an attempt on the life of President Alexander Lukashenko, said on Friday the official representative of the State Security Committee of the republic, Andrei Yarosh.
Earlier, the KGB reported that nine people were involved as defendants in the criminal case of preparing a coup in Belarus, three of them are in the United States. As follows from the information of the committee, these are Dmitry Shchigelsky, Alexander Perepechko and Pavel Kulazhenko.
“The KGB Investigation Department sent a request for legal assistance to the competent justice institutions of the United States of America, in the framework of which the requested party is required to establish the whereabouts of the defendants, to interrogate them, to carry out other investigative and procedural actions aimed at a comprehensive investigation of all the circumstances of the case”, – quotes the words of Yarosh Sputnik Belarus.
Lukashenko on April 17 announced the arrest of a group of people who were preparing an attempt on him and his children. According to the president, the US special services are involved in this. At the same time, the group included both citizens of Belarus and foreigners who, according to the KGB of the republic, in addition to physically eliminating Lukashenko, wanted to organize an armed rebellion in order to seize power by violent means. Among the detainees is a lawyer with US and Belarusian citizenship Yuri Zenkovich. Lukashenko said on April 24 that Zenkovich had long been recruited by the American special services.
On April 28, the Belarusian ONT TV channel showed footage of operational footage in which Zenkovich pleaded guilty to being “used as a technical organizer” of preparing the coup and assassination attempt. During the interrogation, Zenkovich also spoke about Shchigelsky, who lives in the United States, who participated in the discussion of plans to eliminate the leadership of Belarus. According to Zenkovich, Shchigelsky “ruined his professional career by writing an article about Alexander Lukashenko 20 years ago”. He suggested that Shchigelsky’s motivation was to return to Belarus and “pursue a political career”.
Earlier, the KGB reported that those detained in the case of preparing a coup d’etat and an attempt on the president’s life were charged with committing a crime under part 1 of Article 357 of the Criminal Code – “Conspiracy or other actions committed to seize state power.” According to the Criminal Code, with such qualifications, the defendants face from eight to 12 years in prison.