March 4, Pozirk. The Belarusian Investigative Committee has announced a special procedure case against former political prisoner Leanid Sudalenka, a human rights defender from Homiel.
The government uses the special procedure to prosecute its exiled opponents.
Sudalenka was charged on March 1 with facilitating extremism. The Investigative Committee summoned him to its local department in Homiel, but he did not show up.
Another special procedure case was opened against Jury Ščučko, an associate and colleague of Vital Šyšoŭ, the ex-head of the Belarusian House in Ukraine nonprofit who was found hanged in Kyiv in 2021.
Ščučko is charged with insulting the head of state, defamation, illegal handling of personal data and other crimes.
Sudalenka was arrested in January 2021 on suspicion of organizing protests.
A Homiel judge sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment in November 2021. He was released after serving his sentence in July 2023 and has fled the country.
