Translated material
Stolen happiness
The son of the ex-Prime Minister of Belarus was caught red-handed
Former Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir called the arrest of his youngest son a political provocation of the Belarusian authorities. Alexander Chigir was detained by police last Saturday while trying to sell spare parts from a stolen car. The ex-prime minister is sure that this story did not happen by chance on the eve of the presidential elections, where Chigir Sr. intends to stand as a candidate. Alexander Chigir may be charged with theft on an especially large scale.On Saturday, the police conducted a raid at one of the car markets. The day before, several people contacted the Central Internal Affairs Directorate to report missing cars. One of the victims identified the spare parts sold by Alexander Chigir as parts of his own car. Together with Chigir, his business partner Sergei Kolyada and the nephew of the famous writer Vasil Bykov were detained. According to the victim Leonid Vyshinsky, he has no doubt that the spare parts belonged to his car. On Monday, with the sanction of the prosecutor, a search was carried out in garages belonging to Chigir Jr.’s company. In the remains of the body, which was in one of the garages, Vyshinsky identified the minibus stolen from him the day before.
Nevertheless, Mikhail Chigir believes that the case is fabricated. According to him, knowing about his father’s “complicated” relationship with the authorities, Alexander Chigir would not have allowed himself to sell a stolen car. As Yulia Chigir suggests, the spare parts could indeed have been taken from a stolen car, but she is sure that her son knew nothing about it. In addition, Mikhail Chigir states that the investigation into his son’s case is being conducted in violation of procedural norms. According to Chigir, his son was beaten during his arrest, and a lawyer was not allowed to see him for a long time.
Meanwhile, the arrest of Alexander Chigir is not the first criminal story in the family of the ex-premier. Let us recall that Mikhail Chigir himself spent several months in prison on charges of abuse of power. His wife was brought to administrative responsibility for resisting police officers. The eldest son was detained in 1996 on charges of car theft. However, he was soon released and is currently in Germany.