Dzmitryi Karakin
musician, sentenced to 2 1/2 years of freedom restriction
Date of birth: 11 December 1985
Date of detention: 13 October 2022
Charges indicted:
Art. 342 of the Criminal Code — Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them
Sentence: 2 1/2 years
Penalty: restricted freedom under home confinement ("domashnyaya khimiya")
Judge: Volha Yemelyanchanka
Dzmitryi Karakin is a musician, a member of the Litesound rock group that represented Belarus at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.
Dzmitryi Karakin and his brother Uladzimir Karakin were arrested on October 13, 2022. Later, the brothers were placed in a pre-trial detention center on charges of participation in the post-election protests (under Article 342 of the Criminal Code, 'Organization and preparation of actions grossly disrupting public order, or active participation in them').
Later it became known that their parents were also arrested for a family photo taken during one of the peaceful marches in 2020. In the detention center, their father, Yuryi Karakin, had a stroke and was released.
The trial of the Karakins family case took place on March 10, 2023 in the Saviecki District Court of Minsk. According to human rights defenders, Dzmitryi Karakin and his brother Uladzimir Karakin were sentenced to 2 years and 6 months of freedom restriction under home confinement, as well as their mother Volha Kraiko.
