Ambulance Takes Activist From Trial Of Pavel Mazheika And Yulia Yurgilevich In Hrodna

The woman died in hospital.

During the trial of journalist Pavel Mazheika and lawyer Yulia Yurgilevich in Hrodna, activist Sviatlana Rynkevich, who came to support them, felt sick and lost consciousness. She was taken by ambulance. She died that night in the hospital. According to Zerkalo, Pavel Mazheika's wife, Iryna Charniauka, wrote about it on Facebook.

On the eve of 4 p.m., when the judge closed the hearing of Mazheika and Yurgilevich, friends and relatives left the courtroom and gathered in the yard. At that moment Sviatlana felt sick, fell to the ground and lost consciousness. The ambulance took her to the hospital, but there she fell into a coma and died that night, Iryna Cherniavka said.

She added that Sviatlana took part in all the hearings and other political trials held in Hrodna.

"These are the little heroes who come to smile at the man in the cage - and for many victims it's a special smile they see in the courtroom. They can remember and tell everything," Iryna wrote.

Sviatlana Rynkevich herself once suffered repression - in 2020 she was arrested and later lost her job for participating in protest marches.

The trial of Mazheika and Yurgilevich began on July 10.

According to the case materials, Pavel Mazheika, "acting in a group of persons", in collaboration with Yulia Yurgilevich, in February-March 2022, provided unidentified persons with information about the deprivation of Yurgilevich's license and expulsion from the Bar Association, as well as about the trial of the artist Ales Pushkin, to post on the Belsat TV channel.

They are accused of "promoting extremist activities by a group of persons a preliminary collusion" (Part 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code). The maximum penalty under this article is seven years' imprisonment.