MINSK -- The leader of an independent trade union in Belarus says he and his accountant have been summoned to appear in court on July 30 to face trial on tax evasion charges.
Henadz Fyadynich told RFE/RL on July 17 that he and accountant Ihar Komlik had received written orders to attend the trial at the Lenin District Court in Minsk.
Fyadynich, who is the head of a union representing workers in the electronic products industry, Komlik, and the union they represent were charged with tax evasion in August 2017.
Komlik was then taken into pretrial custody and released in October. Both men were ordered not to leave Minsk while the investigation was under way.
Fyadynich has said that the case against him, his assistants, and the union is politically motivated.
He says the case is connected to the union's role in organizing protests in February and March 2017 against an unpopular labor law imposing a tax on the unemployed.
