MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st July, 2020) A group of Russians detained in Belarus has been provided with lawyers, who are bound by a non-disclosure agreement, spokeswoman for the Belarusian Republican Bar Association Daria Shupenka told Sputnik on Friday.
The Belarusian state-run news agency Belta first reported on Wednesday that more than 30 Russian nationals had been detained on allegations that they were attempting to destabilize the country's political landscape ahead of the upcoming presidential election. Belarusian Security Council State Secretary Andrei Ravkov said later that a criminal probe into the preparation of terrorist attacks was launched in connection with the detention of over 30 Russians believed to be members of the Wagner Group private military company.
"The Russians detained in Belarus are provided with lawyers. Under the law, each of those detained has the opportunity to exercise their right to defense, and this opportunity was provided to them. The defenders signed an agreement on the non-disclosure of the preliminary investigation data," Shupenka said.
In response to the detention, the Kremlin refuted as "slander" claims that Russia could have tasked anyone with destabilizing the situation in Belarus ahead of the presidential election there. Moscow added that Russia even had no such legal term as "private military company" and the government was not aware of any such functioning military enterprises.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the detained Russians were staffers of a private security firm who used Belarus as a transit point and were due to go to Istanbul but missed their flight.
