Tsimur Ryzapur
taxi driver, sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison
Prisoner
Date of birth: 14 March 1983
Date of detention: 30 September 2020
Charges indicted:
- Part 2 of Art. 293 of the Criminal Code — Participation in riots
- Art. 411 — Malicious disobedience to the demands of administration of the correctional institution
Sentence: 5 1/2 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony
Judge: Vera Filonik, Natallia Panasenka
Prison: Penal colony No. 1
Notes: Foreign citizens, Parents of three or more children, Prison security level
Cases: Protests in Brest
Statement on the status of a political prisoner
Godparent: Mathias Stein, member of the German Bundestag
Tsimur Ryzapur was arrested on September 30, 2020, and accused of participating in the riots in Brest on the evening of August 10, 2020, under Part 2 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code.
The 37-year-old taxi driver was returning home from work on the evening of August 10 but was shot with rubber bullets five times. The investigator explained his choice of pre-trial detention by the fact that Tsimur Ryzapur does not have Belarusian citizenship, even though he has a residence permit and has been living in Belarus for about 23 years.
On March 10, Ryzapur to 4.5 years in a medium-security penal colony.
On March 10, 2021, in the Maskoŭski District Court of Brest, Judge Vera Filonik convicted Tsimur Ryzapur and eight other defendants in that criminal case. Tsimur Ryzapur was sentenced to four years and six months of imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony.
He was sent to penal colony #1 in Navapolack, Viciebsk region.
In June 2023, human rights defenders learned that Tsimur Ryzapur had spent over 100 days in a punishment cell and was then placed in a tighter security cell.
On July 10, 2024, he was tried in the Leninsky District Court of Mahiliou under Part 2 of Article 411 of the Criminal Code (malicious disobedience to the colony administration). On July 17, 2024, Judge Natallia Panasenka sentenced Tsimur to another year of imprisonment in addition to the four and a half years in the colony.
9 people convicted in Brest ‘rioting’ trial
