Heorhi Vasilenka
entrepreneur, sentenced to 19 months of imprisonment, released after serving full sentence
Former prisoner
Date of birth: 24 November 1996
Date of detention: 5 February 2021
Charges indicted:
- Part 2 of Art. 339 of the Criminal Code — Hooliganism committed by a group of persons
- Art. 368 of the Criminal Code — Insulting the President of the Republic of Belarus
Sentence: 19 months
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Date of release: 10 July 2023
Judge: Siarhei Salouski, Viktar Kazachak
Groups: Businessmen
Cases: Protests in Homieĺ
Heorhi Vasilenka is an entrepreneur from Homieĺ.
He was accused of replacing the official state red-green flag with a white-red-white one on Lienin Square in Homieĺ. The incident took place on August 16, 2022.
On November 26, in the Centraĺny District Court of Homieĺ, Judge Siarhei Salouski sentenced Heorhi Vasilenka to 24 months of restricted freedom in an open-type penal facility under Part 1 of Article 339 ('Hooliganism').
On February 15, 2022, Heorhi Vasilenka was arrested in the open-type penal facility, in which he was serving his sentence. In mid-April 2022, it became known that he was in remand prison #3 in Homieĺ.
On June 27, 2022, the Centraĺny District Court of Homieĺ found the political prisoner guilty of 'insulting the president of Belarus' (Part 1 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code). According to the indictment, while serving his sentence, Vasilenka posted messages containing obscene language referring to the president of Belarus in a chat room. Judge Viktar Kazachak sentenced him to 18 months in a general-security penal colony. Taking into account the previously served punishment, Heorhi Vasilenka had to spend 19 months behind bars.
In August 2022, Heorhi Vasilenka was transferred from remand prison #3 in Homieĺ to penal colony #5 in Ivacevičy, Brest region.
In mid-July 2023, the political prisoner was released having served his full sentence.
Political prisoner convicted for white-red-white flag gets another term for insulting Lukashenka
2 years in prison for removing state flag: New trend of repression in Belarus
