Norwegian pensioner, 71 in Belarus' pre-trial detention for 3 months
Illustration / udf.by
71-year-old military history fan Dag Wivestad from Norway came to Brest in Belarus in September last year to tour around the WWII-related sites. Instead, he ended up in pre-trial detention on suspicion of coercing a minor into sexual acts, facing between 8 and 15 years in prison if convicted. The Norwegian’s niece Camilla Gleditsh turned to friends on Facebook seeking help.
According to her, on 29 September 2019 Dag and his close friend met a 10-year-old girl and her two younger brothers who came from a wedding that was held in a hotel’s restaurant. Her uncle was surprised that she spoke good English and talked to her for about 2 minutes. Shortly after, a group of men from the wedding approached her uncle and his friend and started beating them. The police eventually came and took the two foreigners into custody.
The niece is worried about her uncle and says that she is in possession of the footage from a CCTV camera, which shows that Wivestad did not touch the girl.
The Investigation Committee’s spokesman for the Brest Region Dzmitry Ivaniuk has confirmed to Euroradio that a criminal case was opened against the Norwegian.
“In the course of an investigation, the prosecutor authorized the placing of the defendant into pre-trial detention. The criminal case was transferred from the investigation to the prosecutor’s office in December 2019 for further trial in court. Therefore, the Investigative Committee currently has no authority to comment on this case.”
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