Sports foundation leaders sentenced in absentia for advocating sanctions

December 26, BPN. The Minsk City Court has announced its first sentences in a special procedure case, the Viasna Human Rights Center reports.

Judge Śviatłana Bandarenka sentenced two founders of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation (BSSF) to 12 years in prison without defendants being present at the trial.

She found three-time Olympic medalist Alaksandra Hierasimenia and handball club Vityaz’s former director Alaksandr Apiejkin guilty of calling for sanctions to be imposed on Belarus.

Human rights activists say the court ordered the seizure of over $48,000 on Hierasimenia’s accounts, an apartment, a car, a parking lot and multiple pieces of equipment. All this property will reportedly be sold to cover the legal costs.

The prosecutors argued that BSSF, created in August 2020, was not duly registered in Belarus. It disseminated “deliberately false information and fabrications about the events that took place in Belarus before and after the presidential election,” they said.

Its founders appealed to “governments, foreign and international organizations and entities,” initiating “sanctions against the National Olympic Committee of Belarus and other sports organizations,” they said.

The activists campaigned to prevent the Belarusian team from competing in the Olympics under the national state flag, they added.

Their activities, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, “contributed to the cancellation of several sporting events and damaged Belarus’ national security politically and socially.”

Investigators said the material damage from BSSF’s activities exceeded 800,000 rubels (over $300,000 at the current exchange rate).

The Investigative Committee opened the special procedure case against the BSSF founders on September 29. The trial in absentia began on December 19.

Special procedure allows the government to try emigrants in absentia, potentially depriving them of citizenship.

Hierasimenia left the foundation in spring 2022.