Director of Korpus cultural centre Bahdanaŭ and stage designer Kruk, sentenced to prison terms, evacuated from Belarus

February 7, BPN. Aliaksandr Bahdanaŭ, director of the Korpus cultural center closed by the authorities, and Maxim Kruk, stage designer, have been evacuated from Belarus, said Andrej Stryžak, co-founder of the BYSOL Fund.

“After long and unpleasant adventures, BYSOL evacuation service managed to evacuate them to a free world. The guys are safe and recovering,” Stryžak wrote on social networks.

In mid-December last year, the Leninski District Court of Minsk (judge Maryna Klimčuk) sentenced Bahdanaŭ and Kruk to three years of restricted freedom with transfer to an open-type correctional facility. They were found guilty under Article 342, part 1 of the Criminal Code (actions grossly violating public order).

Both artists were detained on September 2, 2021 after a search of the Korpus. Both were initially tried for the production, storage, and distribution of “extremist materials,” but the case was sent for revision. Bahdanaŭ and Kruk were then arrested for 10 days under Article 19.1 of the Administrative Code (disobedience to police officers) and the criminal case followed.