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DOBRUSH, Belarus — Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has said the directors of all four of the country’s sugar-producing plants, whose whereabouts have been unknown for more than a week, are being held by the Committee for State Security (KGB) on corruption charges.
Lukashenka said on February 4 that a statement from the KGB concerning the case will follow “soon.”
“They created a fake company in Moscow, a trade house, and put their people to run it. They were selling Belarusian sugar at dumping prices and then reselling it in the [Russian] market for much higher prices. The price difference then was given back to the directors of the plants as bribes,” Lukashenka said.
On January 27, local media reports said that the directors of the four sugar plants failed to show up for work. Some reports said that at least 11 people linked to the sugar plants were detained for questioning.
There was no official comment on the situation either from the Investigative Committee or the KGB.