Gennady Fedorovich Vasilyuk
On September 15, 2023, 57-year-old Gennady Vasilyuk was fined for "distributing extremist materials." Subscriptions to "extremist" materials were found on Gennady's Odnoklassniki page. In addition, Vasilyuk was fired from the locomotive depot "by mutual agreement."
On December 7, 2023, Gennady was detained as part of a criminal case for "slandering Lukashenko" (Part 1 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code) and placed in custody in a pretrial detention center. The case was heard on February 22 and 26, 2024.
The man was accused of posting the "like" reaction on the Odnoklassniki social network on June 8, 9, and 17, 2022, under three videos featuring economist Yaroslav Romanchuk.
Gennady admitted his guilt and reported that on the specified days in June he went to a village in the Zhabinka district, which is confirmed by an extract from a mobile operator. The man uses a push-button phone, so he could not log into Odnoklassniki in the village.
Prosecutor Yegor Kronda considered Gennady's guilt to be fully proven and requested one year and six months of imprisonment for him.
Gennady was convicted for the second time on September 16, 2024, for participating in protests. His wife and three other people were convicted along with him. According to the court, the essence of the charge against everyone was that on August 10, 2020, people in Brest "shouted slogans, whistled, clapped their hands, demonstrated white-red-white banners, and went out onto the roadway." In doing so, they allegedly grossly violated public order.
The court sentenced Gennady to one and a half years in prison, but taking into account the unserved previous (political) term, the final sentence was only 2 years in a general regime prison.
Trial outcome 22.02.2024: 1 year 6 months of imprisonment in colony under general regime conditions.
Appeal 19.04.2024: the sentence was upheld.
Trial outcome 16.09.2024: 2 years of imprisonment in colony under general regime conditions.
Appeal 15.11.2024: unknown.
How to write a letter
✏️ A postcard with words of encouragement (a poem by your favorite author, song lyrics, or a beautiful quote). Trust us, even such simple gestures are very meaningful to a person in jail.
✏️ Your life events. To a person who is in isolation for a long time, any story about your routine endeavors will be a window into normal life. Your day-to-day worries and mundane matters are much more interesting than the daily grind of life behind bars.
✏️ It is important to share news. Mention the most notable and interesting occurrences depending on your pen-pal's interests.
✍️️ Remember that every letter is censored. This means that your letters are read by strangers whose main goal is to limit inmates' access to information or to use it against the prisoners or even you.
So try to avoid:
👉️️ harsh statements regarding ongoing political matters
👉 statements against the authorities and public servants
👉 foul language
👉 discussion of the circumstances of the criminal case