Homiel Political Prisoner Was Convicted For The Second Time In Six Months

Andrei Padniabenny was sentenced to almost 17 years in prison in total.

On January 3, the Homiel Regional Court delivered the second sentence in six months against 34-year-old political prisoner Andrei Podnebenny. He is a citizen of Russia, but has been living in Belarus since the age of six and has a residence permit, according to the Viasna HRC.

For the first time, Andrei was sentenced to 15 years in a medium-security penal colony under a number of serious articles of the Criminal Code of Belarus, including for an 'act of terrorism' for setting fire to the car of the head of the Department of Corrections. Now Andrei was tried under four criminal articles, including for "assisting extremist activities" and "inciting other social hatred and discord". As a result, he was added another year and eight months in a medium-security penal colony to his 15 years of imprisonment. In addition, the political prisoner was fined 1,000 basic values (37,000 Belarusian rubles). Judge Ruslan Tsariuk considered the case behind closed doors.

Andrei was detained on November 5, 2021 and placed in custody. For almost a month he was in the KGB pre-trial detention center in Minsk, then he was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1, and since December 15, 2021, he has been in Homiel pre-trial detention center No. 3.

On May 23, 2022, the KGB included Andrei on the "list of persons involved in terrorist activities".

Support Andrei with letters: Pre-trial detention center No. 3. 246003, Homieĺ, Knizhnaia 1A Str., Andrei Padniabenny.