State Security Committee started the largest in the last ten years investigation of Defense Ministry officials. Basing on materials of KGB inspections, there have been already initiated criminal cases against two Colonels and one Major, who take high positions in the Ministry of Defense.
Criminal cases are initiated against a number of iconic figures of Belarusian Defense Ministry, Ezhednevnik informs. This is the head of the 2nd division of 7th department of the General Staff, Colonel Andrei Mastyanov, commander of the 361st base of guard and maintenance of central institutions of military administration of Belarus’ Armed Forces, Colonel Igor Begunets, as well as the chief of military office of Defense Ministry, whose name and rank have not been found out yet.
Together with the servicemen there were investigated general director of Midivisana and his deputy. This company has been an authorized GAZ dealer in Belarus for more than 15 years, it has been also the official ZIL distributor and has been engaged in manufacturing and supply of special-purpose vehicles and vans for the Ministry of Health, Interior Ministry and Defense Ministry.
The involved have not faced the accusation yet. At the moment, they are suspected only in the forgery, that is, a crime stipulated by part 1 of article 427 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. The maximum penalty under this article provides two years of imprisonment, so, as a rule, this kind of accusations rarely leads to the trial because of their negligibility.
According to KGB, all five suspects in December 2009 fabricated false documents on their fulfillment of obligations on military equipment modernization in time. These documents were sent to Ministry of Defense, and then were transferred to the Commander in Chief in the report on the modernization of Belarus’ Armed Forces.
