Andrei Akushka

board games enthysiast, sentenced to 2 1/2 years of imprisonment

Former prisoner

Date of birth: 17 November 1977

Date of detention: 28 December 2021

Charges indicted:

  • Art. 369 of the Criminal Code — Insulting a government official
  • Art. 368 of the Criminal Code — Insulting the President of the Republic of Belarus

Sentence: 2 1/2 years

Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony

Date of release: 20 February 2024

Judge: Yuliya Chyzh, Ala Skuratovich

Groups: Cultural workers

Andrei Akushka is the head of a board games club and one of the organizers of the board games festival. He was detained in September 2021 on charges of insulting a government official and then sentenced to 4 years in an open correctional facility and released in court.

But then he was detained again in a criminal case of insulting a government official (Article 369 of the Criminal Code) and insulting the president (Article 368 of the Criminal Code) and placed in pre-trial detention center. Andrei was found guilty and after combining the sentences was sentenced to 2.5 years in a general-security penal colony.

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