Andrey Mikhailovich Cedric

Okolotovich was arrested at a cemetery. The KGB lured the priest there by tricking him into coming there: they called him and told him a woman had died and needed a Catholic burial. At the cemetery, they handcuffed him and placed a black helmet on his head so no one could see who was being taken or where.

Two of his parishioners, a man and a woman, were detained at the same time. They spent approximately nine months in a KGB pretrial detention center, where they were forced to testify about the priest's alleged meetings with foreign diplomats.

The charges ultimately brought against Okolotovich were outlandish: he allegedly somehow diverted Russian and Belarusian air force planes in the opposite direction, thereby causing damage not only to Belarus but also to the Russian Aerospace Forces—a total of one million euros. Upon his arrest, approximately 270,000 euros were confiscated from him—mostly parish funds, not the priest's personal funds. This sum was applied toward the debt, and the remainder was claimed as additional payment in Belarusian rubles.

By that time, Okolotovich had already been under surveillance for a long time, but nothing could be found that would prove espionage.

The priest became the latest religious figure to be affected by the regime's repression of religious communities in Belarus.

Genrikh suffered a heart attack and recently underwent stomach surgery for cancer. He requires medical supervision and constant medication. He slept on the floor and boards for over a year; he was only moved to a bunk bed before the trial.

The KGB offered Okolotovych a special condition for his release. Upon returning to Volozhin, he was to invite the Vatican's apostolic nuncio to a church service and discreetly hand him a flash drive containing incriminating evidence—a pretext to discredit the diplomat. At the time, Ante Jozic was the nuncio to Belarus. This provocation against the nuncio wasn't the only one: according to Krylov, the KGB proposed similar scenarios against other foreign diplomats, primarily Polish ones. The priest refused everything: "I am completely imbued with God's ecclesiastical purposes. And what you demand of me is a crime. I cannot betray God."

In November 2025, he was pardoned after a visit to Belarus by the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, as a special envoy of Pope Leo XIV.

Vladimir has been interested in urban development and architecture for about 20 years. He has created a unique database with thousands of photographs of various buildings in Belarus and abroad—photobuildings.com.

In a video shown on ONT, Vladimir claims to have registered in the Peramoga chat room, and in November 2022, Alexander Azarov allegedly contacted him.

On February 27, 2024, the appeal was heard and the verdict came into force.

According to human rights activists, he will be released in December 2025.

Detained in May 2023 for “distribution, production, storage, transportation of information products containing calls for extremist activities or promoting such activities.” After the administrative punishment, a criminal case was opened.

On April 16, 2024, Oleg’s appeal was considered, and the verdict came into force.

According to the case materials , Savinsky transferred the equivalent of 50 US dollars to the accounts of funds recognized as “extremist” over the course of a year and a half. At the same time, he repeatedly used his Facebook account. He also created and posted 4 text messages in one of the telegram chats, allegedly aimed at “inciting social hostility in society.”

On January 12, 2024, an appeal hearing was held. The verdict came into force.

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).

Pavel was arrested in connection with a criminal case opened under the article "inciting hatred or discord" and was sentenced to imprisonment in a penal colony in November 2023.

He was released in the fall of 2025, having fully served his sentence as determined by the court.

Borisov photographer who was detained on June 22, 2023. Security forces searched the house and took away computer equipment. After this, Zenkov was immediately taken to Minsk, where he was kept for some time in the temporary detention center on Akrestsin, and then transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1.

As BAJ wrote , the photographer was detained in July 2020. In September, police officers came to Zenkov to “warn him about the inadmissibility of violating the law.”

Alexander Zenkov has worked as a freelance photographer since 1998, collaborating with regional independent publications.

On April 16, 2024, Alexander had a hearing of his appeal.

The girl is a citizen of Ukraine, originally from the city of Kherson. She studied in China, graduated from the university there in 2015, and in 2016 moved to Belarus. In Belarus she worked as a translator from Chinese.

Ekaterina was detained while crossing the Belarusian border. They demanded that she give her phone for verification; she provided it to the employees along with the passwords. Belarusian security forces found that on March 30, 2022, she sent 2 videos to the chatbot of the Zerkalo editorial office. The video showed the movement of Russian military equipment near Minsk, which she herself captured.

On December 12, 2023, the appeal was considered. The verdict came into force.

On the evening of June 28, 2024, sudden information appeared about the release of five political prisoners from Belarusian colonies. The Ukrainian authorities achieved the release of their exchange citizens as prisoners. This is how Natalya Zakharenko, Pavel Kuprienko, Lyudmila Goncharenko, Ekaterina Bryukhanova, as well as Nikolai Shvets, a defendant in the “Machulishchi case,” were released. The terms of the exchange were not disclosed. It is noted that the Vatican took part in the liberation. The released political prisoners were brought to Ukraine on June 28 - their photo from the Zhulyany airport appeared in the media.