Aksana Zaretskaya

Etiquette expert, member of Coordination Council, sentenced to 1 1/2 years of imprisonment

Former prisoner

Date of birth: 17 May 1982

Date of detention: 27 December 2022

Charges indicted:

  • Art. 342 of the Criminal Code — Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them

Sentence: 1 1/2 years

Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony

Prison sentence start date: 19 May 2023

Date of release: 10 April 2024

Judge: Katsiaryna Murashka

Groups: Cultural workers, Teachers

Cases: Protests in Minsk

Godparent: Beate Walter-Rosenheimer, Member of the German Bundestag

Aksana Zaretskaya is an etiquette expert, a culturist, an etiquette and business communication trainer, and has a master's degree in pedagogy. She has two children.

Zaretskaya was a member of the core Coordination Council as of 2020.

She was arrested in late December 2022.

In January 2023, it became known that she was indicted under Article 342 of the Criminal Code ('Organization and preparation of actions grossly disrupting public order, or active participation in them').

The trial of Aksana Zaretskaya and Bahdan Karavets—a political prisoner, the founder of the Astronim web design company—started on March 10, 2023, in the Maskoŭski District Court of Minsk.

On March 14, 2023, Judge Katsiaryna Murashka found the political prisoners guilty and sentenced Aksana Zaretskaya to 18 months of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony. Bahdan Karavets was sentenced to 24 months of imprisonment.

On March 16, 2023, Zaretskaya was taken to hospital from remand prison #1 in Minsk. As it became known later, she felt bad after the verdict was announced and was hospitalized. Zaretskaya was in a coma for at least three days. Later she was returned to remand prison #1 in Minsk.

On May 19, 2023, the Minsk City Court dismissed the appeal of the political prisoner and upheld the verdict.

On May 20, 2023, her transfer to women's penal colony #4 in Homieĺ began.

Coordination council member and an entrepreneur receive jail terms for 2020 protests

On March 14, Maskoŭski District court of Minsk convicted political prisoners Aksana Zaretskaya and Bahdan Karavets of active participation in actions that grossly violate public order under part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code. Judge Katsiaryna Murashka sentenced Zaretskaya to 18 months and Karavets to 24 months of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony.

 

 

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