A 38-year-old illustrator. She quit her job at a large IT company. Her colleagues, shocked, tried to talk her out of it, so she decided to go home. She claimed she already had a certificate from the KGB showing she'd paid back the full amount of her 2020 donation. She was tired of being homeless. She was detained at the border. According to the prosecution's case, as presented by the Prosecutor General's Office press service, between 2021 and 2022, Natalia Levaya transferred cash and cryptocurrency totaling at least four thousand four hundred rubles (equivalent to approximately 1,275 euros today) to bank accounts and virtual wallets "used by members of extremist groups, including armed groups such as the Kalinovsky Regiment." Furthermore, she was fined 1,000 basic units—almost the same amount she donated to initiatives and foundations. This is the penalty requested by the prosecution in court. The trial was held behind closed doors.
She was pardoned on February 19, 2026, in her 8th month of pregnancy.
Irina was arrested in 2020-21 and convicted of a traffic accident. She was sentenced to five years in a penal colony, but her sentence was soon changed for violations and she was transferred to a penal colony in Gomel. While in the colony, a new criminal case was opened against her for participating in protests in Baranovichi and she was transferred to a pretrial detention center in Baranovichi. She spent nine months there. According to the court's verdict, her first sentence completely absorbed her second (for protesting). She was released in July 2025.
Trial outcome 12.07.2024
1 year 6 months of imprisonment in colony under general regime conditions.
Irina Pogadaeva is 54 years old. She is from Brest. She worked at a local library as a bibliographer. Judging by social networks, she has two children.
At the end of January 2024, when she was tried for “distributing extremist materials.” At the end of 2023, she was included in the “extremist formation.” This was recognized by the Facebook community “Letters of Solidarity Belarus 2020”, in which people exchanged letters from political prisoners and also discussed helping prisoners.
In total, the case involves more than thirty episodes in which a woman sent money to political prisoners in pre-trial detention centers in Minsk, Gomel and other cities of the country. Basically, we are talking about amounts of 4-5 rubles. In just less than a year and a half (from August 2021 to December 2022), Irina sent 188 rubles. This was enough to initiate a criminal case and arrest in May 2024.
To ensure that none of political prisoners are left without attention and support the site has a function of verified sendings.
Please attach a photo or a screenshot for transfer verification. The new transfer will be posted on the site as soon as it is verified by the moderator!
Support actions
You can upload an image from the support event, and after passing moderation we will publish it.
Respond to help those released
Do you want to help a released political prisoner? Send your contact to Telegram and we will contact you.
A Keeper means you want to regularly help a specific person in prison through their family. Choose a political prisoner and click «Become a Keeper», our team will contact you shortly.
You can request the letters that we have in storage, for this, leave your telegram account for feedback, we will contact you and, after verifying your identity, we will transfer the archive with your letters.
Are you a relative or someone close to a political prisoner? Send us a short description and your Telegram contact for feedback. After data verification we will publish your relative on the website.
Do you have information about administrative prosecution? Please send us a short description and your Telegram contact for feedback. After checking the data, we will publish your information on the site.
Please leave your contact on Telegram and describe your skills in as much detail as possible. After moderation, your CV will be published on the website.
Multi upload allows you to send confirmations with one photo to several political prisoners at once, check the selected people before sending!
Please attach a photo or a screenshot for transfer verification. The new transfer will be posted on the site as soon as it is verified by the moderator!
Write to representatives
Correct translation
Application for assistance in employment or retraining
Please complete the questionnaire to enter the first stage of an interview to determine your individual needs.
