Yana Pinchuk
in custody pending trial
Prisoner
Date of birth: 28 June 1997
Date of detention: 1 November 2021
Charges indicted:
- Part 3 of Art. 293 of the Criminal code — Training or other preparation of persons for participation in mass riots, or financing of this activity
- Art. 361 of the Criminal Code — Calls for actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus
- Art. 361-1 of the Criminal Code — Creation of an extremist formation, or participation in it
- Art. 130 of the Criminal Code — Incitement to hatred
- Art. 290-4 of the Criminal Code — Establishing or participating in an organization for the purpose of terrorist activity
Sentence: 12 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Prison sentence start date: 2 December 2023
Judge: Tatsiana Falkouskaya, Liubou Simakhina
Prison: Penal colony No. 4
Groups: Telegram channel administrators
Statement on the status of a political prisoner
Godparent: Tony Lloyd, member of the House of Commons
Yana Pinchuk was arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 1, 2021.
According to the investigators, from September 2020 to November 2021, she administered three protest Telegram channels. In May 2022, a Russian court denied Pinchuk temporary asylum in Russia.
On August 9, 2022, she was extradited from Russia to Belarus despite the extradition ban by the UN Human Rights Committee.
Pinchuk was charged with Part 3 of Article 130 ('Inciting other social hatred'), Part 3 of Article 361 ('Public calls for the seizure of the state power, violent change in the constitutional order, the implementation of actions aiming to harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus'), and Parts 1 and 2 of Article 361-1 ('Creation of an extremist formation or participation in it') of the Criminal Code.
In late October 2022, Yana Pinchuk was transferred from remand prison #2 in Viciebsk to remand prison #1 in Minsk.
Eventually, the political prisoner is charged with the following articles of the Criminal Code:
- Part 3 of Article 130 ('Inciting other social hatred')
- Part 3 of Article 361 ('Public calls for the seizure of the state power, violent change in the constitutional order, the implementation of actions aiming to harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus')
- Part 1 of Article 361-1 ('Creation of an extremist formation')
- Part 3 of Article 293 ('Training in participation in riots')
- Part 1 of Article 290-4 ('Activities aiming to create an organization for the implementation of terrorist activities by such an organization, or its part or its structural subdivisions')
Yana Pinchuk is charged under Part 1 of Article 290-4 and Part 3 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, which were not mentioned in the criminal case file before the extradition and, as a result, were not considered during the extradition check in the Russian Federation. Thus, Belarus violated its written guarantees that Yana Pinchuk would not be prosecuted or punished for the crimes she committed before the extradition, for which she was not extradited, thus violating the requirements of the 1993 Legal Assistance Convention.
The case trial is scheduled for April 10, 2023, in the Minsk City Court.
