Dzmitryi Harbunou
blogger, sentenced to 1 1/2 years of imprisonment
Date of birth: 23 February 1969
Date of detention: 13 January 2023
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: 1 1/2 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Prison sentence start date: 8 May 2023
Judge: Maryia Aliferuk
Prosecutor: Pavel Krupenich
Prison: Penal colony No. 8
Dzmitryi Harbunou, a blogger from Brest, was placed in custody for insulting Lukashenka and a government official.
It is known that Harbunou was accused under Article 369 of the Criminal Code ('Contempt of a government official') for his comment "asshole" posted in June 2021, under a photo of the policeman Anton Katsila from Lida (Hrodna region), who was reported to have taken part in the arrest of Vitold Ashurak, a political prisoner who died in prison.
Besides, Dzmitryi Harbunou was accused under Article 368 ('Contempt of the president of Belarus') for a comment posted in August 2021, in a Facebook group after Lukashenka called the national Belarusian white-red-white flag "a rag". Harbunou wrote, "You, moustached ass, took office under this rag in 1994".
On March 16, 2023, the Maskoŭski District Court of Brest began the trial. On March 17, Judge Maryia Aliferuk sentenced Dzmitryi Harbunou to 18 months in a general-security penal colony.
