Political prisoners

On February 2, 2024, an appeal hearing was held. The verdict came into force.

Andrey Stepurko is 33 years old. The man graduated from the Radio Engineering College, and then «‎MITSO» International University. He worked as a software engineer in a polyclinic, a computer assembler, a computer operator, a sales consultant. It is known that he is fond of practical shooting, engaged in laser tag and other types of shooting games.

As far as we know, the man was detained in the case of the explosion of the plane in Machulishchi. He allegedly found an apartment for the alleged perpetrator of the sabotage in Machulishchi Nikolai Shvets.

Stepurko's parents and his brother were also detained.

47 year old Oleg was born in Krasnoyarsk, but in 2000 he moved to Belarus and has already received citizenship. 

In the film on the ONT TV channel, they showed how the Ukrainian terrorist Nikolai Shvets was detained on March 4 at Oleg's house in the «Berezovaya Roshcha» garden association in the village of Chertyazh (Borovlyansky Village Council).

Sychev with his wife Nastya Pilko was detained by law enforcement officers on March 3 in the same house.

According to human rights activists, both of them are now in the pre-trial detention center of the State Security Committee.

The detained couple has two juvenile children who are now with their grandmother.

Dmitry Mostovoy is 45 years old. He is a resident of Sinitsa, studied at the Polytechnic College in Minsk, a professional programmer.

He was detained during the protests in October 2020, and he was sentenced to several days of arrest.

Dmitry was detained in early March 2023. In the film «Gaspar did not get in touch» on the ONT TV channel, released on April 05, 2023. It was said in the film that Dmitry offered the telegram chat «Belarusian Gayun» to merge information about the airfield in Machulishchi: he set up an online broadcast from a computer, where all the actions taking place at the airfield for two weeks without a break were shown.

Now the man is in jail on charges of treason to the state and facilitation extremist activities.

The guy is 22 years old, he is originally from Svisloch, a town in the Grodno region. He served in the army, and then moved to live in Grodno. He was involved in sports, for example, he represented his hometown in junior sports all-around.

The guy is currently detained and placed in a pretrial detention center . He is accused of preparing an act of terrorism.

According to the KGB legend, voiced in a pro-government film on ONT, he was supposed to commit sabotage in Grodno.

In the interrogation footage, he says that he was allegedly given the task of blowing up an oil depot using a drone and explosives.

On June 28, 2024, the appeal was heard and the verdict came into force.

Citizen of the Russian Federation. In the pro-government film "Gaspar Didn't Get in Touch" on the ONT TV channel, aired on 05.04.2023, they say that Alexey allegedly took photos of objects in Grodno - the Grodno and Grodno region military registration and enlistment office, military unit 41780, the Auls region oil depot, the Devyatovka region oil depot, the Russian consulate general. And also that a year ago Kulikov escaped conscription, and Russian oppositionist Daniil Krinari (Kovalevsky) helped him get to Grodno. In December, Krinari was detained in Grodno and extradited to Russia.

Alexey's only close relative is his grandmother.

On June 28, 2024, the appeal was heard and the verdict came into force.

Artem Zubryakov is an employee of «Belagro»‎. He was detained at the end of September 2022 together with colleagues. It was reported that criminal cases were opened against 4 of the detainees, and about 20 were detained. Telegram channels supporting the state power of the Republic of Belarus published news in which they wrote that the company's employees had been actively protesting since 2020.

During a search of the office in the fall of 2022, paraphernalia and furniture in red and white colors were seized.

Artem Zubkov noted that he was detained for sign up to telegram channels recognized as extremist in the Republic of Belarus and forwarding materials from these channels.

The trial was held behind closed doors.

According to pro-government telegram channels, four people were detained - they are called a "sleeper cell of extremists" who had "external connections" with Belarusian volunteers fighting in Ukraine. Among them is Dmitry.

All of them are from Gomel and, judging by their posts on social networks, have been friends for a long time, participating together in an international game of Beer Pong in Gomel. After the brutal detention , the friends were forced to record a “repentance video” and say that they created a chat where they corresponded with each other, and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they allegedly insulted Lukashenko several times in correspondence, and also wrote “wrong” comments. Another accusation is that the guys “had external connections” with Belarusian volunteers who are fighting for Ukraine. Apparently, this was the basis for initiating a criminal case under the article “promoting extremist activities.”

On May 10, 2024, the appeal was considered and the verdict entered into force.

Detained together with his wife in the case of sabotage in Machulishchi.

Human rights activists received information that on March 3, Maxim Lopatin was detained by employees of the State Security Committee in the case of sabotage in Machulishchi. The man is being held in the pre-trial detention center of the State Security Committee.

Lopatin was severely beaten during the arrest. A film was released on ONT, which tells about some high-profile detentions, including the mention of Maxim. Allegedly his friend is a psychotherapist Evgenia Tochinskaya, who lives in Poland, asked to bring a Ukrainian agent Shvets from Stolin to the Lagoy highway on February 27.

The video shows that the man has dentures on his jaw, which may mean that it was broken. After splinting, there should be a serious stage of rehabilitation with eating and drinking water through a tube.

On March 23, Maxim's wife, Lyudmila Lopatina, was also detained. 

The couple has two juvenile children.

Activist from Baranovichi. Igor has a disability of the 3rd group, because. 10 years ago, he got into an accident and had his leg amputated. He was arrested on February 23, 2023, sentenced to 15 days, then transferred to a pre-trial detention center under a criminal article.

According to the investigation, in different periods of time from May 1, 2020 to May 23, 2022, Shumilov published four posts in Odnoklassniki with satirical images, in which the investigation considered insulting Lukashenka and government officials, as well as slandering Lukashenka. It is known that on one of the images Lukashenka, together with the listed persons, is depicted as prisoners who are kept in a prison cell. At the trial, Igor fully admitted his guilt. He explained that the publications on his page appeared only after he "liked" these posts. He himself did not understand at that time that these drawings could be regarded as an insult.

Bodybuilder, local historian. Previously, a man was detained for participating in protests. On March 16, 2023, he was arrested for “distributing extremist materials” and sentenced to 10 days. The man did not come out and was transferred to a pre-trial detention center. The original charge was for insulting Lukashenko.

In May 2024, he was transferred to a pre-trial detention center on a new criminal case; his trial began again on May 7, 2024. In addition to him, Andrei Stabulyanets and Denis Tsybulsky were also involved in the case, who was convicted a year ago for participating in protests in Minsk (Article 342 of the Criminal Code).

He is a political scientist, a specialist in security issues. Head of the analytical center Belarus Security Blog; member of the Board of the organization «Pravyi Alliance» (2010-2011).

According to Andrey's friend, he was detained in Moscow a few days ago. Now he has been taken to Minsk and is now in the pre-trial detention center of the State Security Committee («SIZO KGB»).

On June 20, 2023, an appeal hearing was held. The verdict has entered into force.

On August 10, 2020, during the protests, Alexey was driving in his car in Minsk in the area «Belaya Vezha». At the intersection, the man saw members of the special purpose police squad, who, looking for protesters, began to brutally detain car drivers: shoot and break windows in cars. Alexey, not expecting his detention, drove forward, where traffic police officers were just passing. Not noticing the official car, Alexey moved into its row. At the time of the maneuver, the traffic police car had already stopped, and the man went on about his business. In this action, the court saw interference in the activities of an employee of the internal affairs body (Article 365 of the Criminal Code).

At the same time and in the same place, there was allegedly a traffic police officer Mosenza, who testified at the end of December 2022, allegedly Alexey wanted to shoot him down then. For this, the man was charged with Article 364 of the Criminal Code and taken into custody.

Alexey has three children, one of them is a minor daughter of 5 years old.

The Rogachev District Court found that Yulia posted messages and videos on her publicly accessible page on the social network Instagram that “contained insults to the president.”

02.12.2023 released after serving the full sentence imposed by the court.

In January, during the pre-election raids, Yulia Kostyuchenko was detained again and on January 22, she was tried under Part 2 of Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for allegedly distributing “extremist materials.” On February 5, a second trial of Yulia Kostyuchenko took place under Part 2 of Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Most likely, Yulia was held in custody all this time and her administrative arrest was simply extended, first for 15 days, and then extended again on February 5. In total, Yulia spent 90 days in the temporary detention facility, after which she was transferred to Pretrial Detention Center No. 3.

On April 3, 2025, the KGB of Belarus recognized the page on the social network X with the name "what's going on" as an "extremist formation". At the same time, the punishers named Yulia Viktorovna Kostyuchenko, born August 5, 1995, as involved in this "formation".