Lukashenka Demands Russia To Extradite Singer Angelica Agurbash

The singer has been supporting protesters in Belarus since August 2020.

The General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus opened a case against singer Angelica Agurbash, secured her arrest in absentia and demanded that the Russian authorities extradite her. In May 2021, the department began an investigation under articles on inciting social hostility (Part 3 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus) and insulting the president (Part 2 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus), Radio Liberty reports.

Since August 2020, the singer has posted publications on social networks "aimed at inciting social enmity" against the Belarusian security officials, officials and "representatives of the authorities who advocate the observance of law and order and the preservation of the current state constitutional system of the Republic of Belarus." Also, Agurbash, according to the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus, published along with "unidentified persons" posts in which she insulted Aliaksandr Lukashenka and accused him of "committing especially grave crimes."

The singer has supported protesters in Belarus since August 2020, when the presidential elections were held in the country. On July 2, Agurbash published a video message in which she said that Lukashenka "took the country, took people hostage, launched a cruel repressive machine that does not spare anyone." "The General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Belarus has already opened criminal cases against me under two articles, putting me on the wanted list, demanding my extradition, arrest and transfer to pre-trial detention center # 1 in Minsk," the singer said.

The artist took part in protests against the Lukashenka regime at the Belarusian embassy in Moscow after the elections in the summer of 2020. She also signed a letter demanding a re-election of the President of Belarus and an end to the repressions.