Andrei Kareshnikau
Former prisoner
Date of birth: 16 November 1999
Date of detention: 13 November 2020
Charges indicted:
- Part 1 of Art. 339 of the Criminal Code — Hooliganism
- Art. 346 of the Criminal Code — Abuse of historical and cultural values
Sentence: 2 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Date of release: 26 September 2022
Judge: Yuliya Hustyr
Prosecutor: Marharyta Kurylovich
Andrei Kareshnikau, a resident of Minsk, was sentenced to two years of imprisonment under part 1 of article 339 of the Criminal Code (disorderly conduct) and part 2 of article 346 of the Criminal Code (desecration of historical and cultural values).
On 14 August 2020, he took two cans of white paint, a respirator and gloves and came to a monument. He drew a circle and a horizontal line over it on the statue of the woman, which is a part of the obelisk "Minsk-City-Hero". According to the investigation, by doing so he openly mocked the customs and traditions of the Belarusian people, especially the valuable cultural achievements of the country, as well as desecrated the immortalized memory of the participants and victims of the fighting during the Great Patriotic War.
After the verdict was pronounced on November 13, he was taken into custody.
