Regional court sentences defense analyst to five years

December 23, BPN. The Minsk Regional Court has sentenced military expert Jahor Lebiadok to five years in prison, the Prosecutor General’s Office reports.

Lebiadok was found guilty of facilitating extremist activity and drawing others into it.

His personal computer was seized by court order as the means of committing the crime, the prosecutors said.

They didn’t mention the convict by name, but there is no doubt that by “L, a 40-year-old resident of the Smalavičy district” they meant Lebiadok.

The criminal case against him was opened for two interviews with Euroradio, a Polish-based station declared “extremist group” by Belarus.

According to the case file, “in April and May 2022, from the personal computer that he used… L gave interviews to a representative of that media on the Russian Armed Forces’ special military operation in Ukraine and Belarus’ role in it.”

Investigators said these interviews “contributed to the dissemination of false information about the political, economic, social, military and international situation of Belarus and the legal status of its citizens,” which eventually “discredited the Republic of Belarus.”

The military expert was arrested on July 12 in the Minsk region’s Smalavičy district and jailed, initially for defying police orders.

Lebiadok, a former artillery platoon commander during service in the army, holds a PhD in laser physics. In 2017, he also earned a degree in public administration and law. He ran a Telegram channel about military and information security with 11,000 subscribers (the number has dropped to 7,400 after his arrest).