Supreme Court upholds veteran activist’s sentence

June 10, BPN. The Supreme Court has upheld the five year sentence for activist Pavieł Vinahradaŭ, the Viasna Human Rights Center reports.

The rights group says he is expected to be sent to a prison in the Viciebsk region soon.

Vinahradaŭ, the host of the It’s Vinahrad! show on the Polish-based Belsat television channel, was arrested on December 22, 2021. He is widely regarded as a political prisoner.

He was sentenced to five years in prison by the Minsk Regional Court on 16 March. The court found him guilty of inciting enmity, defaming Łukašenka and organizing/actively participating in actions that grossly violate public order.

Vinahradaŭ, 34 years old, is an active member of the democracy movement. In 2020-2021, he was repeatedly detained and punished with administrative arrests for violating the procedure for organizing or holding mass events.

Vinahradaŭ had previously been a political prisoner. In 2008, he was a defendant in the “Case of Fourteen” for his participation in an entrepreneurs’ rally and was sentenced to two years of freedom restriction without being sent to a penal institution.

Since 2010, Vinahradaŭ had been active in the Tell the Truth campaign. He was arrested on January 5, 2011 after a protest against the falsification of 2010 presidential elections and accused of organizing mass riots and participating in them, as well as insulting state symbols. He was sentenced to four years of imprisonment in a high-security penal colony. He was pardoned afterwards.