Convicted In Russia Belarusian Kiryl Silivonchyk Denied Conditional Early Release

The Belarusian, who was trapped in a Russian prison for supporting Ukraine, will stay behind bars.

As it became known to charter97.org, on September 16, the Semenovski district court of Nizhny Novgorod region made a final decision to deny the citizen of Belarus Kiryl Silivonchyk, who is serving a sentence under Article 205.2 of Criminal Code of Russia (Public justification of terrorism and public calls for it), a conditional release. Kiryl had no penalties (but he was praised twice), there is no monetary lawsuit against him, he is given a positive characteristic. And at the same time the administration of the correctional colony №14 did not satisfy his application for conditional early release. The formal reason is that the convict is under preventive supervision.

We remind that Kiryl Silivonchyk worked in the “defense industry” as a system administrator at the 170th flight facilities repair factory in Nizhniy Novgorod. In December 2014 he was arrested, and in April 2015 was tried in the Moscow military court and sentenced to two years in a penal colony settlement under the article “Public justification of terrorism or public calls to it.” Working at the Russian flight facilities repair factory, Kiryl Silivonchyk was an active member of the Belarusian-Ukrainian Solidarity group in the social network Vkontakte. He regularly published posts in support of Ukraine, for the return of the Crimea, against Russian troops in Donbass. And, naturally, as is common in social networks, he reposted. One of reposts was a picture, where a Ukrainian soldier is scragging a double-headed eagle, with a long pretentious text underneath the picture on “Support the Ukrainian brothers, enroll for the Ukrainian army.” Among other things there was a phrase “Kill moskals!” He was arrested for that and tried in the military court, and sentenced to two years in a penal colony settlement.

Silivonchyk’s preventive supervision looks mockingly in this case. It is usually applied in Russian colonies to those, who are inclined to escape, to commit suicide, or have been caught using drugs or alcohol. But to apply this measure to the prisoner without violations, who has been praised, is absurd. According to activists in Nizhny Novgorod, Silivonchyk got under preventive supervision, which deprived him the right to parole, just because of the article, under which he had been convicted. The representative of the prison administration said at the trial that he would be under preventive supervision as he “deals with, follows and propagates extremist ideology.” If we formulate it in common words – this is just the administration’s biased attitude towards the political prisoner, which it does not even try to hide.