Ihar Khmara
tour guide, sentenced to 2 1/2 years under home confinement
Date of detention: 2 August 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: Tatsiana Pirozhnikava
Ihar Khmara is a tour guide and local historian. He was detained in early August 2022 for speaking Belarusian in public and sentenced to administrative arrests. He was not released after he had served the term as a criminal case for ‘active participation in group actions that grossly violate public order’ under Article 342 of the Criminal Code was filed against him.
On November 11, 2022, Judge Tatsiana Pirozhnikava of the Maskoŭski District Court of Minsk found Khmara guilty and sentenced him to two and a half years of restricted freedom under home confinement.
