Russian rights group calls Moscow man jailed for Belarus protests political prisoner

November 23, BPN. The banned Russian human rights group Memorial has declared Aleksandr Gedzhadze, the Russian national who was transferred from a Belarusian penal colony to Russia, a political prisoner, the group’s press office reports.

Belarusian law enforcers arrested the Moscow man on October 27, 2020. He was accused of using a car sharing service to transport tires to Minsk protesters building a barricade. On April 20, 2021 a court found Gedzhadze guilty, sentencing him to three years.

In October 2022, Gedzhadze was transferred from Navapołack to a colony in Russia’s Smolensk region.

Belarusian human rights activists had recognized him as a political prisoner in January 2021.