Artem, a student, was first detained and severely beaten after a protest, the Pensioners' March, in November 2020. He was then sentenced to 15 days under an administrative article.
However, on March 24, 2021, during the days of mass preventive detentions before Freedom Day, he was arrested again early in the morning in a dormitory, allegedly because of a flag he had spotted, and sentenced to 25 days of administrative arrest. But the very next day, a video appeared on the Telegram channel of the propagandist Azarenka, in which Artem confessed to administering the public page. It later became known that he was beaten with truncheons to force him to record this confession.
He was never released, as a criminal case was opened against him. Artem was subsequently convicted of "participation in group actions that grossly violate public order" and "creation of an extremist group."
Released in January 2025 as part of a pardon.
