Rail Partisan’s Brother: Dzianis Wanted To Help Ukraine

Belarusian patriots are threatened with death by execution.

Presumably, already in August, the trial in the high-profile case of the Svetlahorsk “rail partisans” will begin. This refers to a group from Svetlahorsk, consisting of Dzianis Dzikun, Dzmitry Ravich and Aleh Mauchanau, recognized as political prisoners. Already in the first days of the war, almost immediately after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, these young people decided to thwart the movement of military equipment.

Simultaneously in several places of the country, unknown people damaged relay cabinets — the equipment that automates the movement of trains. As a result, there were disruptions in the movement of echelons. The sabotage caused a sharp reaction from the authorities. For some time, the railway track stretches were patrolled by the riot police and internal troops. Mass detentions of railroad workers began, but this did not stop the sabotage. The security forces were able to identify several “railway guerrillas” — human rights activists are aware of more than ten such defendants. One of the disclosed groups included three residents of Svetlahorsk.

As the Investigatory Committee recently reported, the case has already been transferred to the prosecutor's office for referral to court. The men can face the maximum punishment up to execution, the press-service of the IC said. And that's for just one relay cabinet set on fire — an action that resulted in no casualties or accidents.

All three will be tried under four criminal articles: Part 3 of Article 361-1 (participation in an extremist formation), Article 289 (an act of terrorism committed as part of an organized group, entailing grave consequences, creating a threat of death to people and infliction of bodily harm on them), Parts 2,4 of Article 309 (deliberately rendering the means of communication unusable, which entailed grave consequences, as well as created a threat of collapse, accidents and death of people) and Part 1 of Article 356 (treason against the state).

Flagstaff talked to Dzianis Dzikun's brother Dzmitry, who left for Lithuania due to the threat of persecution. According to him, the condition of all three political prisoners is satisfactory:

“They have already more or less recovered from the beatings. They were tortured and severely beaten after being detained in order to force them to testify. Such conclusions can be made from the videos published on pro-government channels. The guys are holding on, but of course they are worried about how the trial will go. They know that they are threatened with execution, although it is absolutely illegal. I think they saw stories on state television about a possible execution.”

Dzmitry is sure that his brother decided to take action because he wanted to help Ukraine:

“They did it because of the invasion of Russian troops through Belarus, because of the use of our country’s territory. They wanted to somehow stop, slow down this aggression. It doesn't matter how many years in prison they will get now. The main thing is to stay alive, so as not to get the ultimate punishment.

By the way, the siloviki are also looking for Dzmitry at his house. As acquaintances told him, the district policeman asked me to tell the guy to return to Belarus. It is not hard to guess what for.

Now Dzmitry is raising funds to pay for the services of lawyers and to help the families of political prisoners — after all, they have small children. And also to pay damages in the hope that this will affect the decision of the court. In the Investigatory Committee, the damage from the arson of the relay cabinet was estimated at about 55 thousand rubles.

For these purposes, a donation can be transferred to Dzmitry's account using the details below:

Dzmitry Dzikun

Account: LT463500010013309933

SWIFT: EVIULT2VXXX

Bank name: Paysera LT, UAB

Bank address: Pilaitės pr. 16, Vilnius,

LT-04352, Lithuania

Contact for communication: +37068404439