Dmitryi Sonchyk
photographer, sentenced to 3 years in prison
Date of birth: 26 October 1975
Date of detention: 28 June 2021
Charges indicted:
Art. 364 of the Criminal Code — Violence or threat of violence against an employee of the internal affairs bodies
Art. 369 of the Criminal Code — Insulting a government official
Sentence: 3 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Date of release: 23 March 2024
Judge: Dzmitryi Karsiuk
Prosecutor: Artsiom Tsviatkou
Dzmitry Sonchyk was sentenced under Art. 364 and Art. 369 of the Criminal Code to 5 years of imprisonment in a penal colony for insults and threats to four police officers in comments in a Telegram channel in 2020 and 2021. The comments were written under the influence of emotions after watching videos of beatings and detentions, and were thus triggered by the illegal actions of police officers. In court, Sonchyk stressed that he was not going to implement his threats. The content of the comments is unknown, as they were examined by the court in a closed session.
