The reason for the detention of Gomel resident Vilen Turgunov was comments on the Internet, including negative ones towards the police.
Vilen Turgunov is 55 years old. His father is from Uzbekistan, his mother is Belarusian. Vilen graduated from the university in Russian Novozybkov (Bryansk region) with a degree in jurisprudence. Vilen Turgunov worked at the Zheleznodorozhny District Department of Internal Affairs of the regional center. There were serious problems there. Back in 2001, he received a reprimand for “irresponsible attitude to service,” in 2002 he had “incomplete official inconsistency,” and in 2004 he received a reprimand for “gross violation of official discipline, violation of an order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.”
Later, the former policeman worked at a construction and installation trust in Gomel.
The detainee actively maintained pages on various social networks, where he spoke about political and social events. For his support of Ukraine, other netizens called him a “Banderite.”
Vilen Turgunov’s relative, Igor Kazubov, is also serving a sentence.
On March 19, 2026, he was pardoned after another visit to Minsk by US President Donald Trump's special representative, John Cole (among a group of 235 prisoners left in Belarus).
