Political prisoners

Kirill was detained in January 2024. He was initially arrested for several days for “petty hooliganism,” but was then not released and a criminal case was opened.

Kirill worked at various factories and enterprises that sell industrial equipment. In 2015, he also founded a small company, Grifkom-Vector, which sold components for conveyors (closed in 2021). Kirill writes music and scripts for films. He is also listed in the register of national copyright holders.

The trial of the political prisoner will begin in the Minsk City Court on February 14, 2025. Vevel is currently charged with participation in a certain "extremist formation" (Part 3 of Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code), as well as "inciting hatred" (Part 1 of Article (Article 130 of the Criminal Code)

Detained for reposting from social networks and participating in protests in 2020.

According to Asker's social networks, he lived in Minsk, played sports, and acted in videos. The last time he visited his VKontakte page was in July. His case will be heard behind closed doors in the Minsk City Court on October 4. Asker is charged under Part 1 of Article 361-3 of the Criminal Code (Participation in an armed formation or armed conflict, military action, recruitment or preparation of persons for such participation on the territory of a foreign state).

EPAM Senior Software Engineer Artur Memekh relocated to New Jersey in the spring of 2020. It appears he was detained while visiting relatives in Belarus.

He was last online on social media at the end of last autumn. It appears that Memekh decided to visit Belarus in late 2023 or early 2024 and was detained. Artur's trial begins on September 23, 2024, for "assisting extremist activity."

The essence of the charges brought against Yevgeny Stepanov, who is now accused of "creating or participating in the activities of an extremist group," is unknown. According to unreliable information, he was detained in January of this year for "distributing extremist materials on the Internet" and sentenced to arrest under Part 2 of Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, from which he has not been released.

Evgeniy Stepanov has serious health problems: in 2020, he suffered a stroke, after which he had difficulty speaking. Because of this, Evgeniy Stepanov lost the opportunity to work in his profession - he graduated from the University of Culture and Arts with a degree in directing, conducted weddings, concerts, and other festive and entertainment events.

Yevgeny Stepanov disappeared from social networks at the end of 2022, but due to the difficulty of communicating with him, this went unnoticed. The attention of the security forces was attracted by his appeals to government agencies, written in late February-early March 2022. He demanded to help stop Russian military aggression on the territory of Ukraine - to announce the formation of an anti-war movement and support any forms of anti-war protests; demand the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Belarus, to consider as war criminals all those who made the decision on military action in Ukraine and who sanctioned aggressive propaganda justifying the war in the state Belarusian media.

Yevgeny Stepanov sent his demands to end the war in Ukraine to both local authorities and high-ranking government officials – the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Belarus, the head of the country's armed forces, and the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus.

Detained as a result of a massive raid by security forces on January 23-24, 2024 on relatives of political prisoners and people who sent parcels and letters to political prisoners.

She worked as a nurse at the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Children's Oncology, Hematology and Immunology.

Security forces detained Igor for calls for protest in chats; a video of him was published by a pro-government channel.

In the video, Igor says that in 2020 he “was a member of destructive chats,” and in one of them he “called on people to unite, coordinate,” and also “called on people to damage state property.”

The security forces' video shows screenshots of messages in which the user suggests creating "fake yard chats" and also writes that "it is important to go out in targeted ways and carry out sabotage." It is unknown who wrote these messages.

Elena Toporkova is 54 years old. She graduated from the Belarusian State Polytechnical Academy (now BNTU).

Elena was likely detained during a raid on those in solidarity with political prisoners that took place at the end of January 2024.

People caught in the raid on those in solidarity with political prisoners, which took place from January 23 to 24, say that the number of those who were subject to criminal cases may be much higher than human rights activists know. Completely non-public people simply made transfers or sent parcels to political prisoners from their own funds.

Alexey is an activist, member of the Movement "For Freedom".

On 20.08.2024, the appeal was heard and the verdict came into force.

The couple (Vyacheslav Berezovets and Tatyana Danilyuk) were placed in custody for taking part in protests in Kobrin on August 10, 2020, where the woman "made obscene gestures to the police," and her husband "pulled down his pants and showed his bare buttocks."

At the same time, Vyacheslav has already been convicted for the episode with "showing his buttocks" to the police. The trial took place back in 2020, when the man was charged with an administrative article for this.

The couple left behind three young children.