Vitaly Aleksandrovich Kovbenya

Olga was convicted for a Facebook post made back in 2020.

According to the investigation, by posting on her page, the woman demonstrated “a desire to present the authority of the head of state in a humiliated state in the eyes of the general public, choosing a method of disseminating false information and insults against the head of the country, designed to be familiar to a wide circle of people.”

She is expected to be released in early spring 2025.

According to the charges, at the end of 2020, Natalya posted an offensive comment on one of the Telegram channels under a photo of a man with the text stating that he was a district inspector of the Svetlogorsk District Department of Internal Affairs and was engaged in the political persecution of protesters, and was perjuring himself in court. And thus, according to the prosecutor, the accused publicly insulted a government official with an obscene and negative comment. In addition to the term, Natalya was awarded 700 rubles in compensation for moral damage.

On November 24, 2021, the regional court upheld the prosecutor's protest and replaced the sentence with 2 years of restriction of freedom with sending to a correctional institution.

In early December 2023, she was released after serving her full sentence as determined by the court.

Due to new persecution for political reasons on the eve of her release, she was forced to leave the Republic of Belarus.

Evgeny, a Gomel activist, was detained after a search of his own apartment on May 28, 2021 and later convicted under the articles “organizing actions that grossly violate public order” and “public insult to a government official.”

He was released in July 2022, having fully served his sentence as determined by the court.