Political experts receive 10 years in jail
On March 17, 2023, the Minsk Municipal Court convicted political prisoners Valeryia Kastsiuhova and Tatsiana Kuzina, Euroradio reports. They were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment each.
Depending on their roles, they were found guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code:
- part 1 of article 357 (“assisting actions in seizing power in an unconstitutional manner”),
- part 3 of article 361 (“calls for actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus”), and
- part 3 of article 130 (“incitement of other social hatred”).
The trial was held behind closed doors, so no details are known. Judge Dzina Kuchuk considered the case.
Valeryia Kastsiuhova is a political scientist, founder and editor of Our Opinionб expert community website, editor and author of the Belarus Yearbook, and head of Belarus in Focus expert monitoring group. She was detained on June 30, 2021.
Tatsiana Kuzina is a co-founder of the Sympa School of Young Managers of Public Administration and an expert of the bipart research project. She was detained in Minsk on June 29, 2021.
