The Supreme Court upheld the sentences in “Tsikhanouskaya’s Analysts” case

On Octo­ber 8, the Supreme Court of Belarus con­sid­ered appeals in the absence of 20 inde­pen­dent ana­lysts, researchers, and politi­cians sen­tenced to impris­on­ment. Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media jour­nal­ists Yury Drakakhrust and Han­na Liubako­va are among them. All the indi­vid­u­als involved in the case are abroad.

Yury Drakakhrust is a jour­nal­ist and ana­lyst for Radio Lib­er­ty. Pho­to: Vik­tar Stralk­ous­ki

Polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tors and ana­lysts Ryhor Astape­nia, Fil­ip Bikanau, Ali­ak­san­dr Dabravol­s­ki, Andrei Kaza­ke­vich, Han­na Kra­suli­na, Yauhen Kryzhanous­ki, Dzia­n­is Kuchyn­s­ki, Verani­ka Laput­ska, Ali­ak­san­dr Lahvinets, Vasil Navu­mau, Maryia Roha­va, Ale­sia Rud­nik, Natal­lia Raba­va, Pavel Usau, Tat­siana Chulit­skaya, Ali­ak­san­dr Shlyk, and Kat­siary­na Shmatsi­na are also among those whose appeals were dis­missed by the Supreme Court.

In May-June 2024, the Min­sk Region­al Court con­sid­ered the cas­es of these 20 indi­vid­u­als, des­ig­nat­ed as an extrem­ist for­ma­tion by the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs of Belarus and known as “Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya’s Ana­lysts”. The process was held as a spe­cial pro­ceed­ing.

Harsh ver­dicts: Drakakhrust and Liubako­va sen­tenced to 10 years in prison in “Tsikhanouskaya’s Ana­lysts” case

All defen­dants were found guilty of the fol­low­ing offences:

- Con­spir­a­cy to seize state pow­er uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly (Part 1 of Arti­cle 357 of the Crim­i­nal Code),

- Mem­ber­ship in an extrem­ist group to com­mit extrem­ist crimes (Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 the Crim­i­nal Code),

- Assist­ing pub­lic calls for actions aimed at harm­ing the nation­al secu­ri­ty of the Repub­lic of Belarus (Part 6 of Arti­cle 16 and Part 3 of Arti­cle 361 of the Crim­i­nal Code),

- Facil­i­tat­ing delib­er­ate acts aimed at incit­ing social hatred and dis­cord based on social affil­i­a­tion by a group of indi­vid­u­als (Part 6 of Arti­cle 16 and Part 3 of Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code).

Addi­tion­al­ly, politi­cian Ali­ak­san­dr Dabravol­s­ki was found guilty of lead­ing an extrem­ist for­ma­tion (Part 1 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code).

The fol­low­ing sen­tences were imposed based on the total­i­ty of the crimes com­mit­ed:

Ali­ak­san­dr Dabravol­s­ki – 11 years and 6 months of impris­on­ment and a fine of 6,000 basic units (240,000 BYN); Han­na Kra­suli­na, Dzia­n­is Kuchyn­s­ki, Piotr Rud­k­ous­ki, and Ali­ak­san­dr Shlyk – 11 years of impris­on­ment and fines rang­ing from 1,000 to 40,000 basic units (from 40,000 to 1.6 mil­lion BYN);

Han­na Liubako­va, Yury Drakakhrust, Ryhor Astape­nia, Fil­ip Bikanau, Andrei Kaza­ke­vich, Yauhen Kryzhanous­ki, Verani­ka Laput­ska, Ali­ak­san­dr Lahvinets, Vasil Navu­mau, Maryia Roha­va, Ale­sia Rud­nik, Natal­lia Raba­va, Tat­siana Chulit­skaya, and Kat­siary­na Shmatsi­na – 10 years’ impris­on­ment; Pavel Usau – 11 years’ impris­on­ment.

The prop­er­ty of the defen­dants — apart­ments, hous­es, and land plots in Belarus — has been seized by author­i­ties “to ensure com­pen­sa­tion for the dam­age caused.”

This rul­ing has now come into legal force, accord­ing to the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office of Belarus.