Dzmitryi Karakin

musician, sentenced to 2 1/2 years of freedom restriction

Former prisoner

Date of birth: 11 December 1985

Date of detention: 13 October 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: 2 1/2 years

Penalty: restricted freedom under home confinement ("domashnyaya khimiya")

Judge: Volha Yemelyanchanka

Groups: Cultural workers

Cases: Protests in Minsk

Dzmitryi Karakin is a musician, a member of the Litesound rock group that represented Belarus at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.

Dzmitryi Karakin and his brother Uladzimir Karakin were arrested on October 13, 2022. Later, the brothers were placed in a pre-trial detention center on charges of participation in the post-election protests (under Article 342 of the Criminal Code, 'Organization and preparation of actions grossly disrupting public order, or active participation in them').

Later it became known that their parents were also arrested for a family photo taken during one of the peaceful marches in 2020. In the detention center, their father, Yuryi Karakin, had a stroke and was released.

The trial of the Karakins family case took place on March 10, 2023 in the Saviecki District Court of Minsk. According to human rights defenders, Dzmitryi Karakin and his brother Uladzimir Karakin were sentenced to 2 years and 6 months of freedom restriction under home confinement, as well as their mother Volha Kraiko.

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