What happened to political prisoners on August 22–28
Illustration by brazzil.com
There are already 1,306 political prisoners in Belarus – and counting. Every week the courts keep handing down new sentences and laying new charges against those already in custody. But there are also those who have served their term and are finally released. Viasna has collected all the news about political prisoners for the fourth week of August.
This week the list of political prisoners was updated with 15 new names.
Between August 22 and 28, at least three political prisoners were convicted in courts:
- On August 19, 2022, Judge Ruslan Huryn of the Lieninski District Court of Hrodna found Maksim Pliatniou guilty of ‘desecrating buildings and damaging property’ (Article 341 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced him to 12 months of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony for a protest graffiti.
- On August 19, 2022, Judge Tatsiana Lauraniuk of the Maskoŭski District Court of Brest sentenced Raman Karpuk to three years of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony, as it was requested by prosecutor Pavel Krupenich. Karpuk, 18, was arrested on February 16, 2022, in a criminal case for ‘obstruction of the exercise of electoral rights, the right to participate in a referendum’ (Part 2 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code). The case was brought for distributing and mailing leaflets with an appeal to count votes honestly.
- On August 22, 2022, the Babrujsk District and City Court found entrepreneur and TikTok-blogger Andrei Bialiawski guilty of ‘insulting the President’ and sentenced him to 24 months of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony under Article 368 of the Criminal Code. The trial was held behind closed doors.
Ihar Pyzhjanau, who was previously sentenced to three years of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony for ‘violence or a threat against an official on duty’ under Part 1 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code, has his custody level raised to a high-security prison.
Viktar Ivantsou, Aliaksandr Zakharevich, and Illia Siliankou have served their full terms and were released.
