Symbal.by store owner gets 13 years in prison

May 11, BPN. The Minsk City Court has sentenced Pavieł Biełavus, the founder and owner of an online store selling Belarusian-themed goods associated with the opposition, to 13 years in prison, a source has told BPN.

Judge Žanna Brysina has also fined him 18,500 rubels (some $7,300).

The Symbal.by owner has been found guilty of high treason, organizing protests, seeking to undermine national security and leading an extremist group.

For a decade, his activities have been aimed at changing power by unconstitutional means, investigators said. He also disseminated “the ideas of Belarusian nationalism,” they added. Foreign donors allegedly paid him $150,000, €50,000 and 40,000 zlotys.

Biełavus has been held in pre-trial detention since 2021. His assets, worth over 50,000 rubels, have been frozen by the state.

Human rights groups said he was persecuted for exercising his rights to freedom of assembly and expression after Alaksandr Łukašenka’s controversial re-election in 2020.

His Minsk store, Symbal, sold hip-yet-trendy Belarusian folk-themed merchandise as well as small red-and-white flags of the country’s short-lived independent state. Authorities forced him to close it in June 2020, one month before the presidential poll. 

Dozens of people turned up at the store during fire sale days before the closure to express their support for the store owner and buy what was left in stock. Customers were dispersed by police and some were arrested.