On the morning of February 26, 2023, in the vicinity of the military airfield of the 50th mixed base of the Belarusian Air Force in Machulishchi (Minsk region), local residents heard several explosions. According to BYPOL, they were the result of an attack by a drone of "Belarusian partisans" on a Russian military airborne early warning and control aircraft (AEW&C) A-50. On March 7, 2023, Lukashenko confirmed the information that the aircraft was in Russia, as well as the fact of the attack in Machulishchi. On the same day , the authorities reported that a Ukrainian citizen, Nikolai Shvets, was detained in this case, as alleged, and was named as the perpetrator of the sabotage. Later, state TV channels released an "investigation" about him. Before the sabotage, the man lived in Minsk for a month. At the end of June 2024, Minsk handed over Nikolai Shvets to Ukraine, who was accused of blowing up a military aircraft in the village of Machulishchi.
Director of the Sakavitsa enterprise - the former Molodechno factory of art products. Sergei Sobolevsky was charged with Parts 1 and 3 of Art. 210 of the Criminal Code (“Takeover of property using official powers”), which, according to him, the investigators invented on their knees, is already in court. There was no evidence. Sergei Sobolevsky said in an interview that already when he was behind bars, KGB officers came to him three times with an offer to testify against Sergei Tikhanovsky (they also came to the Vitebsk colony) - and immediately go home. The convict categorically refused.
2 years imprisonment
Citizen of Germany. It is known that Rico previously worked as a special security officer for the American Foreign Ministry in Berlin. After this position, he moved into the healthcare field, working as a nurse. According to his linkedin page, the man was a military doctor for the Red Cross.
Rico Krieger was found guilty of “committing an explosion in order to influence decision-making by authorities, intimidate the population, destabilize public order (an act of terrorism), committed by a person who had previously committed a crime under Part 4 of Art. 295 of the Criminal Code, by an organized group, that is, in the commission of a crime under Part 3 of Art. 289 of the Criminal Code."
Based on it, Krieger was given an exceptional punishment in the form of death penalty (execution).
Human rights activists also learned that the case of the military doctor concerns the Kalinovsky regiment, namely its structural unit, the foreign mechanized battalion "Western".
It is known that the man left behind a minor child in Germany. It is also noted that at the moment there is no information whether the verdict was appealed or protested, and whether it entered into legal force.
08/01/2024 Rico Krieger was released as part of an exchange between Russia and the West.
The death penalty
Yuri is a boiler room operator. He was found guilty of attempting to knock down a national flag from a store in February 2024. The man allegedly "made at least two blows to the shaft." When he failed to knock down the flag, he brought a wooden ladder from the house, climbed up it, grabbed the flag pole with his hands and pulled it down: because of this, the pole broke. According to the indictment, Tomashev then “carelessly crumpled the flag, wrapping it around a tree” and took it to his barn, where he kept it in a bag until the police took it out.
Tomashev admitted guilt. He said that he saw the flag and decided to take it for himself. He was found guilty and sentenced to three months in prison.
3 months of arrest
Citizen of Ukraine from Chernigov. Sometimes she went to Belarus, and as a result she was detained. Natalya has two sons; the youngest was 2.5 months old at the time of his arrest. The trial took place behind closed doors. On March 12, 2024, the appeal was considered and the verdict entered 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.
unknown
Diana is a 34-year-old Brest resident. Works at EPAM and leads the testing team there. After the start of the war, she and her son, who is now 7 years old, went to Tbilisi. But at some point I decided to return to Belarus, although I traveled abroad from time to time.
On her Instagram there is a photo from Warsaw, which dates back to June 29, 2023, three days later a photo from Mir Castle was published. And then the girl disappeared from everywhere.
On May 3, 2024, the appeal was considered and the verdict came into force.
She was sentenced to arrest for a period of 3 months for taking a photo of herself standing on the roadway. Victoria is a citizen of the Russian Federation. After serving her sentence, she was forcibly deported to the Russian Federation and deprived of a residence permit in the Republic of Belarus.
3 months of arrest
On the night of October 13-14, 2023, in the center of the pine forest, the official red-green flag was removed from the flagpole and thrown into the trash bin, and the Ukrainian flag was attached in its place. The person who did this was detained based on the recording of a surveillance camera installed on the village council building. Valeriy Samsonenko previously worked in the Svetlogorsk district department of emergency situations, but quit.
On 05.04.2024, the appeal was heard and the verdict came into force.
According to human rights activists , he will be released in the summer of 2024, having fully served his sentence imposed by the court.
1 year imprisonment in a general regime colony
According to his page on the social network Vkontakte, Zykun graduated from BSMU (Minsk Medical University) in 2016. Lives and works in Brest as a urologist at a regional hospital. In the winter of 2023, he was detained for donations. The “authorities” obliged to pay financial assistance to the orphanage in multiple amounts. After this, the doctor was under the close attention of security forces. The administration put pressure on him in every possible way through the deputy chief physician for ideology.
According to the prosecution , Oleg Zykun deliberately and illegally distributed personal data of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The personal data itself was presumably taken from the Telegram channel “Nexta” (because similar information was posted there). And then he “distributed” them on the local network at work, which was discovered in the summer of 2023. By the summer of 2023, Zykun himself had no idea that in his folder on the local work network there was a file with the names and telephone numbers of Ministry of Internal Affairs employees. But this list was found as part of an administrative case in July 2023 during an inspection of the man’s equipment.
At the trial, Zykun admitted his actions. But he did not admit the intent to disseminate data from employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (which the state prosecution insists on).
1.5 years of restriction of freedom in a colony under general regime conditions.
Tamara has 4 minor children.
Tamara, under Article 342, Part 1, was sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 1 year, to this punishment the court partially added the unserved part of the sentence imposed by the verdict of the Leninsky District Court of Minsk dated June 30, 2022 under Part 2 of Art. 206 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus , and the final punishment was imposed in the form of imprisonment for a period of 2 years 6 months, to be served in a correctional colony under general regime conditions.
2.5 years of imprisonment in a colony under general regime conditions.
On March 6, 2024, the appeal was considered and the verdict came into force.
Katerina has a little daughter waiting at home.
unknown years of imprisonment in a general regime colony.
A person involved in a criminal case that the KGB opened on the fact of an “attempt to commit an act of terrorism” in Machulishchi. It is known that he is the brother of Andrei Stepurko, through whom they allegedly found an apartment for the alleged sabotage artist Nikolai Shvets. He was accused under Art. 289 (act of terrorism) of the Criminal Code.
In December 2023, he was released and is under signature as a witness.
The essence of the case and the verdict were commented on by the assistant prosecutor of Brest on state television. From the video and the prosecutor’s commentary, it follows that Sankovskaya was charged with the following: in 2020 and 2021, in one telegram chat she published an image of the state flag of Belarus, and in the background there was a Nazi swastika (this was a “desecration of state symbols”), and also again in Telegram messenger published an “insulting” message about Yuri Karaev (remember that from June 2019 to the end of October 2020 Karaev was the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, after which he took the post of Assistant to the President for the Grodno region), and also in the Telegram messenger published several messages about A. Lukashenko, which were also considered “offensive.”
1.5 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony.
Oleg was accused of desecration of state symbols (flag).
On January 16, 2024, Oleg’s appeal was heard.
According to human rights activists, he was released on June 3, 2024, having fully served his sentence as determined by the court.
1 year of imprisonment in a general regime colony.
He worked at the BMZ in Zhlobin. Detained for comments on social networks.
On June 26, 2024, he was released, having fully served the sentence imposed by the court.
1 year of imprisonment in a general regime colony.
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