Dzmitry Zhunusau

Former prisoner

Date of birth: 20 November 1990

Date of detention: 21 October 2021

Charges indicted:

  • Article 361-3 of the Criminal Code — Participation or preparing to participate in hostilities on foreign soil by a Republic of Belarus citizen

Sentence: 2 1/2 years

Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony

Date of release: 20 February 2024

Judge: Ruslana Sianko

Prosecutor: Tatsiana Tsybulia

Notes: Detention upon return to Belarus, War in Ukraine

Groups: The military

Dzmitry Zhunusau was born in 1990 in Pinsk. He lived in Ukraine for many years. Dzmitry did not serve in the Belarusian army - and in Ukraine he was taken in the AFU, in the supply service. The man worked as a guard on the border between the self-proclaimed DNR/LNR and Ukrainian-controlled territory. He worked there from March to October 2021.

When Dzmitry lost his Belarusian passport, he applied to the Belarusian embassy in Kyiv, where he was issued a temporary document to replace his passport. Dzmitry returned to his homeland in October 2021, after the embassy advised him to apply for a full passport in Belarus.

Immediately after crossing the border, Zhunusau was detained. The KGB interrogated him non-stop for two days about "terrorism" and "transporting weapons" from Ukraine to Belarus.

No such facts were found, but on October 25, 2021, the man was transferred from the temporary detention center to the pre-trial detention center in Brest. He was charged with "mercenarism" (Part 1 of Article 361-3 of the Criminal Code of Belarus).

In March 2022, the Brest Regional Court, presided over by Judge Ruslana Sianko, considered the case against Dzmitry. On March 17, 2022, the judge sentenced Dzmitry to two years and six months of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony.

He is serving his sentence in penal colony No. 22. 

 

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