Elena Petrovna Gnauk

Since 2020, Elena has been subjected to systematic persecution for political reasons: she has been detained and arrested under administrative articles 17 times, and has been fined a total of 173 basic units. Her home has been searched several times.

In May 2021, Elena was convicted of "participating in group actions that grossly violate public order" in a criminal case opened after a protest on September 13, 2020 in Brest, where participants sang songs and danced in circles, and a water cannon was used against them. According to the prosecution, the protest disrupted the operation of transport. She was sentenced to restriction of freedom without being sent to an institution.

In September of the same year, Elena was convicted again for “insulting Lukashenko.” The combined sentences amounted to three years of “house arrest.”

In January 2022, she was arrested for "violating the serving of a sentence" and sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest. However, she was never released - she was transferred to a pretrial detention center as part of a new criminal case initiated for slandering Lukashenko and discrediting the Republic of Belarus. In June, she was sentenced to imprisonment and a large fine.

In April 2023, Elena was convicted again under the article "malicious disobedience to the demands of the colony administration." This article is often applied to prisoners who refuse to cooperate with the administration, for fictitious violations.

It is known that physical and psychological pressure is constantly applied to Elena. She is regularly placed in solitary confinement and PKT, deprived of almost all parcels, calls, visits, and her merchandise allowance was reduced from three basic units to one.

In February 2025, Polina Sharendo-Panasyuk reported that Elena had been placed in the PKT again: “After several weeks in the punishment cell, she was transferred to the PKT. It is 99% likely that Article 411 will be fabricated against her again.”