On March 1, the Minsk City Court, in the order of special proceedings, began examining the criminal case of one of the presidential candidates during the 2020 election campaign, Valero Tsapkala.

The trial takes place in absentia, as the defendant is outside the country.

Accused under 12 criminal articles,

secretly left Belarus with his children on the night of July 23-24, 2020.

The trial is conducted by judge

On March 29, Tsapkala was sentenced to 19 years in prison by the prosecutor, human rights activists report.

Who is Valer Tsapkala

Valer Tsapkala is a former diplomat, the ambassador of Belarus to the USA and the first deputy minister of foreign affairs, the initiator and the first head of the Park of High Technologies.

Valer Tsapkala was nominated as a candidate for the presidency of Belarus in 2020, but, like some other applicants, he was not registered with the CEC.

The reason for the refusal of registration was the allegedly insufficient number of valid signatures - less than 100,000.

He submitted almost 160,000 signatures to the CEC, but the territorial commissions canceled them en masse.

As a result, he received a little more than 78 thousand signatures.

Tsapkala left Belarus after the law enforcement authorities started an investigation against him, and on December 6, 2022, a special investigation was initiated against the politician by the Main Directorate for the Investigation of Crimes in the Sphere of Organized Crime and Corruption of the Investigative Committee.

The investigation in the case ended on December 28, the materials were handed over to the court.

In October 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs recognized Valer Tsapkala as an "extremist formation" on the grounds that "a group of citizens united under the general leadership of Tsapkala, including through a number of Internet resources, carries out extremist activities."

Also, a logo in the form of a "photographic image of Tsapkala V." was recognized as "extremist".

What is Tsapkala accused of

Valero Tsapkala

is charged under 12 articles of the Criminal Code:

• Part 2 of Art.

  424 of the Criminal Code (Abuse of official powers);

• Part 3 of Art.

  430 (Received bribe, in a particularly large amount);

• Part 1, Art.

  400 (False reporting of a crime in advance);

• Part 1, Art.

  3611 (Creation of extremist formation and management of such formation);

• Part 2 of Art.

  3612 (Collection of money and other property by any means to support extremist activity, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy);

• Part 2 of Art.

  367 (Defamation against the President of the Republic of Belarus);

• art.

  188 (Dissemination of information (defamation) that disgraces another person, in information containing an accusation of committing a particularly serious crime);

• art.

  3691 (Dissemination of advance false information about the political, economic, social, military and international situation of the Republic of Belarus, aimed at causing significant damage to state and public interests);

• Part 1, Art.

  130 (Intentional actions aimed at inciting social enmity on the grounds of social affiliation);

• Part 2 of Art.

  368 (Public insult of the President of the Republic of Belarus);

• Part 3 of Art.

  361 (Public calls to commit an act of terrorism)

• Part 1, Art.

  123 (Dissemination in any form of views, ideas and calls for the purpose of provoking aggression of one country against another).

As BelTA reports, the case file contains information about Tsapkala receiving a bribe of 151,715 euros for the selection of a certain general contractor and the conclusion of a contract for the construction of the High Technologies Park facility, which he headed.

At the same time, Tsapkala allegedly "acquired property benefits worth more than 25,000 Belarusian rubles" for the organization of payment for completed construction works - according to the accusation, we are talking about design and research work on the construction of Tsapkala's residential house, as well as payment for vacations for him, his family and close relatives in Crimea.

A lawsuit has been filed against Tsapkala "in the interests of PVT" to cover property damage in the amount of more than 6,000 rubles.