Belarusian-Speaking IT Specialist From EPAM Faces Up To Ten Years In Prison

A year ago, the woman returned from Georgia.

Maryna Leanovich, who worked at EPAM before her arrest, is accused of “financing war” and “assisting extremism.” The woman faces five years in prison. She will be tried by the same judge who convicted Nasta Loika and Ales Pushkin.

Maryna Leanovich is 28 years old. She is from Minsk. After school, she studied at BSUIR to become a metrologist. Immediately after her assignment, the girl began working at EPAM, where she was a front-end developer (a person who develops the part of the program that the user sees), writes Nasha Niva.

Maryna is also involved in creative work. For example, she writes articles for the Belarusian Wikipedia, makes illustrations and translates into Belarusian, and also writes poetry. The girl maintains all social media accounts in Belarusian, but under pseudonyms.

After the war began, Maryna moved to Georgia and settled in Tbilisi. She is interested in nature, takes pictures and identifies interesting insects and other living creatures that she finds during her travels. The last time she recorded something was on August 3, 2023 — it was a spider that she saw in Tbilisi.

Maryna's arrest was reported on Twitter in October 2023. It is unknown why the woman returned to Belarus.

Maryna Leanovich's trial begins on October 11, 2024. She is accused on the basis of two articles — “financing extremist activity” (Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code) and “financing or other financial support for war” (Part 2 of Article 361-3 of the Criminal Code). The woman faces five to ten years in prison.

Her case will be handled by judge Alena Shylko, who has been passing political sentences since at least 2006. Shylko sentenced Nasta Loika to seven years in prison for her human rights activities, Mikalai Vasilevich to six years in prison for donations, and Ales Pushkin, who died behind bars, to five years of imprisonment.

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