Former Chief Of Lukashenka’s Security Pleads Guilty To Bribe-Taking

MINSK — The former chief of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s security has pleaded guilty to bribe-taking along with more than a dozen others.

Andrey Utsyurin said on March 11, the second day of his trial, that although he was pleading guilty, he has “doubts” about whether his actions were what the court claimed and that he will talk about the subject at a later date.

Utsyurin and 15 other defendants, including former employees of state entities, financial institutions, and private businesses, went on trial on March 10.

Utsyurin was arrested in April last year. He is charged with accepting at least $190,000 in bribes and instigation of a bribe-giving during the handling of a state project on buying communications equipment, computers, and software.

Born in 1971 in the Russian city of Penza, Utsyurin led the presidential security unit from 2007-2014 before he was appointed a deputy secretary of the Security Council, the post he had until his arrest.