In addition to the Englishman Alan Paul Smith, two citizens of Belarus were on the dock. All three are accused of organizing illegal migration, allegedly committed by a group of persons on preliminary conspiracy. According to part 2 of Article 371¹ of the Criminal Code, the accused faces imprisonment for a term of three to seven years.
In order to support Alan Smith, who is in custody since September 29, 2016, in Hłybokaje District Court, his sister Sarah and cousin Harry arrived to Belarus from Belarus. They are sure that Alan nothing wrong, and hope for a fair decision of the court, which will figure everything out and release their relatives.
Alan’s Sister Sarah Smith and his cousin Harry Smith
Defend the interests of a British citizen in the court will be just two defenders, one lawyer came from Minsk, the other – a representative of the local legal community in the Hłybokaje.
Talk of relatives of the accused with lawyers
On the eve of Alan Smith was removed from the Viciebsk remand prison to a Hłybokaje-seated temporary detention facility. As relatives learned, the living conditions at the Hłybokaje are worse than those in the Viciebsk SIZO. According to them, Alan was placed in a room without a window in which there is no ventilation, there is no sink to wash his hands, and there is no toilet – on his question about the toilet, he was told that there is a bucket in the corner for this.
Convoying the accused to court
The trial of all the accused only Olga Grahovskaya said that partially admits his guilt, saying that fault, but acting independently and not as part of a group of persons. Arseny Rachkovski and Alan Smith did not admit guilt.
Olga Grahovskaya
Upon completion of the preparatory part of the court session, during which the necessary formalities were completed (information on the accused, their rights were read, lawyers, the translator, the composition of the court, etc. were presented), the judge began the judicial investigation.
On the first day of the trial, on May 25, the state prosecutor described the nature of the charges, and then the questioning of witnesses began. At the meeting that began after the lunch break, two witnesses were summoned, the rest will be interviewed within the next few days.
Public prosecutor Mikhail Kucherin began his speech with an extremely long and confusing saying. The next tirade sounded from his lips as one sentence:
"The investigation of the criminal case established that Smith Alan Paul, together with Rachkovsky Arseniy Nikolayevich, Grakhovskaya Olga Nikolaevna, Grakhovskiy Andrey Nikolaevich and other unidentified persons, deliberately acting as part of a stable, managed, joint criminal activity created by an unidentified person of an organized criminal group engaged in Activity on the organization of illegal migration of foreign citizens, strictly obeying the hierarchy established in the organized criminal group And following the instructions of the organizer and the head of an organized criminal group to achieve common criminal goals, fulfilling the role assigned to him as the head of a group of foreign citizens from the Republic of Iraq by a group of persons in a preliminary conspiracy as part of an organized criminal group – Olga Nikolaevna Grakhovskaya, Andrei Nikolayevich Grakhovski, Rachkovsky and other unidentified In the course of the investigation, by persons – with the intention of everyone being covered by the actions of other participants – from the mercenary motives rendered assistance in the activities of an organized criminal group for illegal entry, stay, transit through the territory of the Republic of Belarus and leaving the Republic of Belarus of foreign nationals under the following conditions..."
To further not bore the reader with cumbersome style of presentation of his vision of an employee of the prosecutor's office picture, give details of the case, as they see the prosecution, in its presentation.
Thus, according to the findings of the preliminary investigation, there was a kind of an organized criminal group, which aimed to help the citizens of Iraq illegally enter the European Union via Belarus. The organizer and leader of this group is some unidentified person. This mysterious leader and other unidentified members of the group, located on the territory of the Russian Federation and Iraq, no later than August 24, 2016 (more precisely, the place and time are not established), through an Iraqi citizen, they applied to one of the Minsk travel agencies to organize a tourist trip for three citizens Iraq to Belarus.
According to the investigation, the real goal of the Iraqis was not tourism: they intended to come to Belarus to further cross its state border outside official checkpoints and thus illegally enter the countries of the European Union. Nevertheless, the application for visas from the travel agency was received, and on September 1, 2016, the Iraqis arrived at the national airport "Minsk", where they were met by representatives of the travel agency and booked for two days at the Stolitsa Hotel.
As the prosecutor, the head of an unknown criminal gang said Andrey Grahovski (now it is wanted) and other members of the group about the arrival of the Iraqi people and their location. This was also reported to Alan Smith, who, according to the state prosecutor, came to Belarus to meet foreigners and "fulfill the role assigned to him as a representative of the interests of illegal migrants in government and government bodies, as well as in various organizations of the Republic of Belarus."
According to the prosecution, from September 2, 2016, Alan began to lead the actions of a group of Iraqis. He allegedly organized their travel and stay in the new location other than the place of registration, and at the same time began to take steps to choosing ways to extend their period of stay in the territory of Belarus. And about a week later allegedly been instructed to ensure the arrival in Minsk has 4 people in Iraq, for which appealed to some representatives of the Belarusian business, which is transmitted passport data and photographs of Iraqis. He, in turn, formalized through a private trading company applications for the issuance of short-term visas with the purpose of developing business relations in the Republic of Belarus to these citizens of Iraq and submitted petitions to a consular post at the Minsk national airport.
Another group of citizens of Iraq arrived in Belarus on September 16, 2016. According to the representative of the prosecutor's office, Alan Smith met at the airport of Iraqis. He also organized their residence in Minsk. And the next day I received an international money transfer Western Union from Iraq in the amount of 5,500 dollars (7 million 268 thousand Iraqi dinars): "to achieve the common criminal goals of an organized criminal group," the prosecutor repeated the version of the investigation concerning the appointment of the transfer.
September 21, "Smith, with the aim to assist in the activities of an organized criminal group for leaving the Republic of Belarus, foreign citizens, arrived at the railway station Brest". According to the investigation, there he bought tickets for citizens of Iraq and put them on the train "Brest-Terespol", but the latter was denied entry to Poland because of the lack of visas from the Schengen countries. The next day, the story allegedly repeated, but another attempt to send Iraqis to Poland by train also proved unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, some of the Iraqis were running out of Belarusian visas. And, "continuing to act in the interests of an organized criminal group, Smith, pursuing the goal of assisting the illegal stay of the citizens of the Republic of Iraq in the Republic of Belarus ... initiated Salih Shahul Abdullah Salih's appeal to the health facility" 6th Minsk City Clinical Hospital "and in a public institution of traumatology and orthopedics in order to obtain the latest medical reports on health status and recommendations for further treatment, which led to the extension of the CPO and the aforementioned residence of foreign nationals in the territory of the Republic of Belarus ", – said the further" criminal "activities of the British state prosecutor Kucherin. Naturally, the appeal of the Iraqis to the department on citizenship and migration with the application to extend their stay in the territory of the Republic of Belarus "initiated," according to Kucherin, the same Mr. Smith.
And what did the Belarusian participants of the "criminal group" do all this time? According to the investigation, Andrey Grahovski, using "mobile telephony and IP telephony (mobile Internet)", not later than September 6 (that is, many days before the arrival of the second group of Iraqis in Belarus and the attempt of representatives of both groups to travel by train to Poland) ), "instructed Olga Grahovski the need for" the selection of persons and vehicles for the transport of illegal migrants groups in the frontier territories of Brasłaŭ region, search of land and houses in the border area of the Brasłaŭ district P republics of Belarus and the Republic of Lithuania for the purpose of the temporary accommodation of groups of illegal migrants, the search parties for direct transfer of illegal migrants across the state border of the Republic of Belarus ".
According to the words of the state prosecutor, a resident of the Brasłaŭ district, Grahovskaya, contacted Rachkovski no later than September 24, which was in the territory of the Minsk region, and he, in turn, found transport and people ready to help him in transporting migrants. Naturally, she acted allegedly on the orders of the unknown leader of the criminal group.
The final day in the story told by the prosecutor was September 25, 2016. On this day, Grahovskaya again contacted Rachkovski and told him the address in Minsk, from where it is necessary to pick up illegal migrants. And Alan Smith finally complied with the previous instructions of the leader of the criminal group about the need to unite the two groups of Iraqis who arrived on September 1 and 16 and on a vehicle not installed during the investigation brought two Iraqis to the entrance of the apartment building where four more Iraqi citizens lived in the apartment, To which Rachkovsky has already arrived.
"After the landing six Iraqis in cars ... Smith reported via telephone and IP-telephony organizer and other members of the organized criminal group of the completion of the previously received instructions, and two car ... followed with 6 citizens of the Republic of Iraq from Minsk in the direction of the state border of the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Lithuania on the route, reported by Grahovski" – said the prosecutor's office in court. Foreigners were accompanied on the road by Rachkovski. The fate of seven Iraqis who previously was a member of two groups of Iraqis who arrived in Belarus 1 and 16 September, the prosecutor did not say anything.
"On September 25, 2016 at 18:40, at the entrance to the agro-town of Kaziany, the Vidzava village council of the Brasłaŭ district, cars ... with six citizens of the Republic of Iraq ... were stopped and detained by officers of the Kaziany border post, which resulted in the cessation of the commission of this crime, – completed the description of events public prosecutor Kucherin.
The interrogation of witnesses, which began later, did not shed light on whether the version of the investigation regarding the participation of a British citizen in this entire story is true.
On the first day of the trial, people involved in the transportation of Iraqi citizens from Minsk to the Brasłaŭ district were summoned as witnesses, so they could only tell about whom and how they negotiated the transportation of people, when, where and with whom they came, who sat in Car, where they went, how they were detained.
According to witnesses – drivers and car owners, they did not even realize that they somehow helped illegal migration of foreign citizens. So, to the prosecutor's question about the ethnicity of passengers in his car, which he took to transport to the Brasłaŭ district, driver Gennady Tsarun replied that he thought they were people of the nationality of the Roma, like Arseniy Rachkovsky, who negotiated with him; And only when they were detained, he realized what he was involved in. At 4 am the next day it was released and Raczkowski, and they went to his sister Grahovski Raczkowski, who lives near the frontier. And there the driver landed the last of everything that thinks about what happened...
During the interrogation in court, the prosecutor asked Tsarun the question of who else from the defendants, except Rachkovski, was on the landing site of the Iraqis in the car that he ruled. Tsarun replied that no one. "And look carefully at the person on the left with glasses." "In my opinion, he was there," the witness said uncertainly about Alan, guessing what answer was expected of him.
Thus, the first day of the investigation of the case of illegal migration in the Hłybokaje district court left questions more than gave answers. The version of the investigation, voiced by the state prosecutor, looks at least believable, but so far unsubstantiated.
If the investigation did reveal the case about the activities of an organized criminal group, why did the organizer and the leader of this group (like other participants) remain an "unidentified person"? Maybe the investigation had something to do with it?
If the above-mentioned "unidentified" organizer and leader constantly gave some directions to the accused, why do not any of these instructions have any details, but only that they were given "through the use of mobile telephony and IP telephony (ie Mobile Internet) "" no later than "a certain date (" more precisely, the time is not defined ") – exactly in such words, the prosecutor constantly described the interaction of the members of the" group "with its prospective coordinator?
If the British citizen Alan Smith, on the one hand, and the citizens of Belarus who appeared before the court, on the other hand, acted as part of one organized criminal group, why did they not interact with each other (at least, the prosecutor did not bring such facts, Except that Rachkovski and Smith supposedly together led a group of migrants during their landing in cars)? And why in court did they stick like people who are not familiar with each other?
If initially the plan of the leadership of an organized criminal group was that the citizens of Iraq, after entering Belarus, would try to cross the state border of Belarus with the countries of the European Union "outside official checkpoints," then why did Alan Smith try to send them to Poland by train – , With the passage of all border procedures?
If Alan Smith really helped foreign citizens "in the illegal entry into the Republic of Belarus, on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, transit through the territory of the Republic of Belarus and departure from the Republic of Belarus," as the investigation alleges, why did these foreign citizens have no questions with the border guards When they tried to leave Belarus by train "Brest-Terespol"?
So far, the first impression left by the court is the doubt about the correctness of the conclusions of the investigation. After all, the entire accusation scheme is based on the fact that someone "unidentified" organized and directed the actions of the whole group, and all the group members received some instructions from this "unknown".
And what if this "organizer and leader" does not exist in nature (and there is no evidence of its existence yet)? Then the whole scheme crumbles. After all, then it turns out that Mr. Alan has nothing to do with Mr. Rachkovski and Mrs. Grakhovskaya. And then the whole story that all of them are in one criminal group is nothing more than a fiction.
And if there is no organized criminal group, of which the prosecutor spoke, is it likely that Alan could help some Iraqi citizens sincerely, without committing any crime, without any self-serving intent? Yes. Alan, who, incidentally, was born on the Kurdish territory of Iraq, is the owner of two companies: one of them, registered in the UK, deals with oil and gas, and of course, his partners and acquaintances can include representatives of Iraq, one country Of the largest suppliers of hydrocarbons in the world.
He helped the Iraqis to buy train tickets, receive certificates from medical institutions, apply to citizenship and migration authorities about the extension of their stay in Belarus? From the lips of the prosecutor this was sounded without proof, but even if what he said was a fact, what? Is buying tickets and appeals to state bodies a crime?
And as for receiving money from abroad by an official way, through a transfer received in a bank, is this crime really?
Doubts about the correctness of the findings of the investigation intensified the picture from the courtroom. Somehow it's hard to believe that there is any connection between an educated, intelligent European male with glasses and two citizens of Belarus standing in the same cage, one of whom finished only seven school classes and has already six convictions (for drugs and administration A car in a state of alcoholic or narcotic intoxication), and the second – three classes of education and two convictions (theft), but at the same time, according to the findings of the investigation, allegedly performed complex tasks in logistics as part of an organized criminal group.
Which of the statements made by the public prosecutor is a fact, and that only the imagination of the investigators – will show further trial. It remains to be hoped that, as a result, the judge will sort out everything and make an impartial and fair decision.
Kastus Dzvinski
