Lukashenka pardons 10 political prisoners Updated
Thirteen people, including at least ten political prisoners, were pardoned by Aliaksandr Lukashenka, Volha Chuprys, deputy chairperson of Lukashenka's office, said in an interview aired last night on the Belarus 1 TV channel.
The official said that the thirteen persons were carefully picked out of around a hundred candidates. Among them are people who “committed crimes online” and “repented of what they did.” Nine out of thirteen people have minor children. It is also known that the prisoners who have been serving sentences in penal colonies will be transferred to open penitentiaries (“khimiya”). According to nashaniva.com, they will be released this afternoon.
Viasna knows the names of ten political prisoners on the list:
Viktar Kalinouski – sentenced to 2 ½ years of “khimiya” (Article 339 of the Criminal Code, “malicious hooliganism”), sentence commuted to home confinement (“domashnyaya khimiya”);
Valery Loza – sentenced to 2 ½ years of “khimiya” (Article 369 of the Criminal Code, “insulting a government official”);
Maksim Shaulinski – 2 years of “khimiya” (Art. 188, “slander”);
Ihar Bykouskikh – 1 ½ years of “khimiya” (Article 369 of the Criminal Code, “insulting a government official”);
Yauhen Karalchuk – 1 year of “khimiya” (Article 370 of the Criminal Code, "insulting state symbols");
Siarhei Rudzinski – 1 ½ years of “khimiya” (Article 369 of the Criminal Code, “insulting a government official”);
Yauhen Pashaliuk – 2 years of “khimiya” (Article 391 of the Criminal Code, “insulting a judge”);
Vadzim Sychyk – 1 year of “khimiya” (Article 339 of the Criminal Code, “hooliganism”), sentence commuted to home confinement (“domashnyaya khimiya”);
Aliaksandr Babrou – 2 ½ years in a penal colony (Article 342 of the Criminal Code, “organization or participation in actions that violate public order”), sentence commuted to home confinement (“domashnyaya khimiya”);
Yuliya Kashaverava – 1 ½ years in a penal colony (Article 339 of the Criminal Code, “malicious hooliganism”), sentence commuted to “khimiya”.
Lukashenka’s decision is said to be dedicated to the “day of national unity,” a new public holiday introduced to mark what is internationally recognized as the 1939 Soviet annexation of Western Belarus, which was then part of Poland.
UPD. All pardoned persons are political prisoners. Besides the ten people reported earlier, the families confirmed three more political prisoners were on the list:
Aliaksei Korshun - 2 ½ years in a penal colony (Article 130 of the Criminal Code, "incitement to social hatred"), sentence commuted to “khimiya”;
Yauhen Rapin - 3 years of "khimiya" (Article 342 of the Criminal Code);
Yauhen Hovar - 2 ½ years in a penal colony (Part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code), sentence commuted to “khimiya”.
