We remember... Michail Chigir
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Michail Chigir was Chairman of the commercial bank “Belagroprombank”
from 1991 till June 1994. From June 1994 till November 1996
he was prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus. M. Chigir
resigned in protest against the November 1996 referendum and
against the economic policy pursued by President Alexander Lukashenko. |
 On
December 5, 1998 M. Chigir announced his decision to take part in
the presidential campaign “Election-99”. In February 1999, a commission
of 15 people was established to audit the work of the bank (1991
– 1995). The auditing inspection did not make an audit statement
as to avoid violation of economic legislation. However records from
March 1, 1999 described six cases of violation in terms of paying
off loans. All terms of loan repayment were due after M. Chigir
was appointed Prime Minister. In March 1999 M. Chigir collected
120,000 signatures in support of his nomination to be a candidate
for president of the Republic of Belarus. That time mass media spread
the information that he was to blame for not paying off multimillion
loans. In the evening of March 28, 1999 it was announced on the
national TV that M. Chigir had stolen a million dollars and emigrated
from the country.
 On
March 31, 1999 Michail Chigir was registered as a candidate for
president of the Republic of Belarus. A day before the registration
– on March 30 he was arrested and spent eight months in prison.
On November 30 M. Chigir was released from prison to give a written
undertaking not to leave the place of residence. The sitting of
the court that was to be held on December 27 was postponed.
M. Chigir was accused not of political but economic violations
according to Article 91 part 4 “ wide scale embezzlement” and Article
166 “abuse of power”. Punitive actions against Michail Chigir are
evidence of the political character of “Chigir case”. Michail Chigir
was imprisoned for taking part in the presidential campaign and
for his political convictions.
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