Hrodna Man Jailed For Five Years For Calling For Participation In Protests
- 15.08.2023, 15:42
The trial was presided over by Judge Marharyta Lantsevich.
The court of the Kastrychnitski district of Hrodna passed a sentence on 30-year-old political prisoner Viachaslau Yanyuk, accused of “mass riots” under Part 1 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code, human rights activists report.
The trial was presided over by Judge Marharyta Lantsevich.
The prosecution claims that in 2020 Viachaslau Yanyuk repeatedly posted in the Telegram channels “Ichtiandras Of Hrodna”, “Proud Hrodna Resident”, “Harodnia 97%”, “My Country Belarus” “public messages containing statements of an inciting nature and calling for violent actions, thereby ... created the conditions for the commission of a crime by other persons, wishing for the onset of negative consequences, did not take measures until the above publications were removed from the chats, while not bringing his criminal intent to the end due to circumstances beyond his control, since his illegal activity was thwarted by law enforcement agencies.”
On June 23, the Kastrychnitski District Court of Hrodna found Yanyuk “guilty” of “preparing to organize mass riots accompanied by violence against a person, pogroms” and sentenced him to five years in prison with a sentence to be served in a reinforced-security penal colony.
However, the Hrodna Regional Court, considering the appeal against the verdict on August 8, excluded from the descriptive part the indication that the accused was preparing to “organize mass riots accompanied by pogroms”, while upholding the previous term of punishment.
In June, Viachaslau Yanyuk was included in the list of “persons involved in terrorist activities.”