MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2020) Elena Karagacheva, a personal assistant to Belarusian presidential candidate Viktor Babariko, is facing tax evasion charges, her lawyer Vladimir Sozonchuk told Sputnik on Thursday.
Earlier in the month, Babariko's campaign team said that Karagacheva had been arrested and put into a security services' detention facility.
"She has been charged on suspicion of being involved in tax evasion," Sozonchuk said, adding that he cannot say more due to a non-disclosure agreement.
The lawyer added that his client had not admitted her guilt, and the defense would file a complaint with the prosecutor general's office over the allegedly unreasonable charges and chosen custody measures.
On June 18, Babariko, a former head of Belgazprombank, a Belarusian subsidiary of Russia's Gazprombank, was arrested and charged with tax evasion, money laundering, and corruption. His son Eduard was also arrested and charged with tax evasion.
The presidential election in Belarus is scheduled for August 9. The campaign has been accompanied by the arrests of those supporting the candidates running against current President Aleksander Lukashenko. The country's Interior Ministry says that most have been arrested for violating laws on holding public events, as well as undermining public order.
In June, Lukashenko warned that some "groups of militants" might cause a disturbance during the presidential election and promised to prevent social division.
