Ivan Viarbitski
Date of birth: 17 July 1965
Date of detention: 21 October 2020
Charges indicted:
Art. 295 of the Criminal Code — Unlawful acts against firearms, ammunition and explosives
Art. 377 of the Criminal Code — Destruction of official documents
Art. 289 of the Criminal Code — An act of terrorism
Art. 411 — Malicious disobedience to the demands of administration of the correctional institution
Sentence: 8 years and 1 month
Penalty: imprisonment in a high security prison
Judge: Liudmila Piatrova, Tatsiana Kastsiuk, Mikalai Hladki
Prosecutor: Siarhei Kavalchuk
Prison: Prison No. 4
Statement on the status of a political prisoner
Ivan Viarbitski is a resident of Haĺšany and has two higher educations. He worked as an artist-designer, then retrained and worked as a cartoonist, director, and video editor. He draws pictures and writes short stories.
He was charged under several articles of the Criminal Code: incitement to an act of terrorism (part 1 of Article 289 of the Criminal Code), illegal acquisition and storage of ammunition and explosives (Article 295 of the Criminal Code), as well as the destruction of official documents (part 1 of Article 377 of the Criminal Code).
According to the materials of the case, on 14 October 2020, with an intention to destabilize the public order, Viarbitski posted text messages in one of the Telegram groups, which contained calls to damage the KGB building with Molotov cocktails and to set fire to the Prosecutor's Office of Ašmiany district, to damage and destroy the property of law enforcement officers by setting their vehicles on fire. During the search, police officers found and seized ammunition and explosives.
Viarbitski was sentenced to eight years and one month of imprisonment.