Dzmitry Papou
activist of A Country For Living group
Prisoner
Date of birth: 7 January 1992
Date of detention: 4 June 2020
Charges indicted:
- Part 1 of Art. 293 of the Criminal Code — Organization of riots
- Art. 342 of the Criminal Code — Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them
- Art. 191 of the Criminal Code — Obstruction of the exercise of electoral rights
- Art. 130 of the Criminal Code — Incitement to hatred
Sentence: 16 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a high security prison
Prison sentence start date: 20 June 2022
Judge: Mikalai Dolia
Prosecutor: Dzianis Mikushau
Prison: Pre-trial detention center No. 8
Groups: Bloggers
Notes: Foreign citizens, Prison security level
Cases: The Tsikhanouski case
Statement on the status of a political prisoner
Godparent: Céline Vara, member of the Swiss Council of States
Dzmitry Papou is the moderator of several social media accounts linked to Siarhei Tsikhanouski's YouTube channel "A Country For Living". He was probably arrested on June 4. Prior to that, he posted a video saying that the police wanted to arrest him in a criminal case. A few days later, it became known that he had been sentenced to 15 days in jail and taken to the Minsk detention center.
From there he was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1, where he is still being held.
On July 10, Dzmitry Papou was charged under Part 1 of Art. 342 of the Criminal code of the Republic of Belarus (preparation for or active participation in group actions which grossly breach public order).
Dzmitry Papou faced final charges under four articles of the Criminal Code:
- Part 1 of Art. 293 (organization of mass riots);
- Part 3 of Art. 130 (incitement to social hatred);
- Part 2 of Art. 191 (obstruction of the Central Election Commission activities);
- Part 1 of Art. 342 (organization of actions that grossly violate public order).
On December 14, 2021, Dzmitry Papou was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison.
In October 2022 it became known that the political prisoner had been transferred to Prison No. 8.
On November 4, 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs added the political prisoner to the "list of persons involved in extremist activities".
According to human rights activists, the defendants in the "Tikhanouski case" will have to pay 22 million rubles in compensation - as stated in the court ruling, "to pay employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for additional time on duty during the post-election protests".
