Former head of security for Lukashenka, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribery

The Supreme court of Belarus sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment in colony with a reinforced regime of the former head of security service of President Lukashenko and Deputy head of the security Council Andrei Vtyurin

Maxim Secunet / Wikimedia Commons

Andrei Vtyurin

The Ministry of internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus

The Supreme court of Belarus sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment in colony with a reinforced regime of the former head of security service of President Lukashenko and Deputy head of the security Council Andrei Vtyurin. He was charged under part 3 of article 430 of the criminal code of Ukraine (receiving a bribe), paragraph 5 of article 16 (complicity) and part 2 of article 431 (giving a bribe repeatedly or in the large size) vtyurin stripped of his rank of Colonel, had confiscated 192 thousand dollars, according to TUT.by.

In addition Vtyurin defendants in the case are 15 people. Several of the accused assisted the preliminary investigation, izoblichit other partners, issuing property and returning the income gained by a criminal way.So, two Russians – Vladimir Kazantsev, Vitaly Gorbachev (representatives of “SmartLabs” and “UGMK-Telecom”) – announced that he passed Turino money for promotion of their structures in the contracts with the operator “Beltelecom”. Kazantsev admitted his guilt, the Gorbachev part. The court sentenced each to two years of imprisonment. At the same time in connection with the Amnesty and taking into account the period of police custody, they were released.

Among the other defendants in the case – former General Director of “Beltelecom” Sergei sivodedov, who for bribery was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in a strict regime colony. Another seven and a half years was a former Chairman of the Board OJSC “Belarusian interbank settlement center” Felix Kasperovich and former Deputy head of the main Department of information technologies of the National Bank Andrei Podgorny. The remaining defendants were assigned various penalties – fines of 5,000 base (more than 56 thousands of U.S. dollars) and of restriction of freedom to imprisonment for a period of 3 to 6 years.

A graduate of the Russian Saratov higher military school of internal Affairs and the Academy of the interior Ministry of Belarus, Andrei vtyurin worked in the security service of Lukashenko since 1995 and from 2007 to 2014, directed it. After this he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the security Council of Belarus and worked in that position until his detention in April 2019.

A few days after the arrest Vtyurin in the local KGB reported that the official was detained red-handed when receiving a bribe in the amount of 148 600 dollars from the Russian commercial entities for assistance in the promotion of its interests in Belarus. In December 2019, it became known that the defendants in the case was accused of receiving and giving bribes for help with the supply of telecommunications equipment, computer hardware and software in Belarus. The accused seized more than 1.65 million, 62 thousand Euro and more than a kilogram of gold.