Yauhen Prapolski
sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison
Date of birth: 20 December 1994
Date of detention: 29 September 2020
Charges indicted:
Art. 411 — Malicious disobedience to the demands of administration of the correctional institution
Part 1 of Article 13 and Article 293 of the Criminal Code — Preparation for mass riots
P. 1 of Art. 13 and P. 3 of Article 218 of the Criminal Code — Preparation for willful destruction or damage to property
Sentence: 9 1/2 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a maximum-security penal colony
Judge: Dzmitryi Astapenka,
Prosecutor: Aliaksandr Ramanovich
Prison: Penal colony No. 20
Yauhen Prapolski was arrested on September 29, 2020. A state-owned TV channel showed him in a story called Internal Ministry identify administrators of anonymous chat rooms and protesters.
Prapolski was charged under Part 1 of Article 13 ('Preparing for crime'), Part 2 of Article 293 ('Participation in mass riots'), and Part 3 of Article 218 ('Deliberate destruction of or damage to property') of the Criminal Code.
On July 19, 2021, Judge Dzmitry Astapenka sentenced Prapolski to eight years of imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony.
In mid-December 2021, it became known that Prapolski had been transferred from Prison #4 in Mahilioŭ to Penal Colony #2 in Babrujsk, Mahilioŭ region.
In early August 2022, communication with the political prisoner completely ceased—his relatives had neither letters from him, nor visits to him, nor info provided by the penal colony. One of the Telegram chat rooms related to penal colony #2 reported Yauhen Prapolski to have allegedly tried to escape from the penal colony. However, his relatives did not believe that.
The penal colony administration regularly put Prapolski in a punishment cell. By August 2022, he had been kept in a punishment cell for two months in a row. In December, he was placed in a tighter security cell for a month.
In total, the political prisoner spent 130 days in a punitive confinement cell and 4 months in a tighter security cell. The administration was going to transfer the political prisoner to the prison regime.
In mid-May 2023, it became known that the political prisoner was in the remand prison in Babrujsk, pending trial.
On May 3, 2023, in the Babrujsk District and City Court, Judge Pavel Kartsinin found the political prisoner guilty under Part 2 of Article 411 of the Criminal Code ('Malicious disobedience to prison administration') and sentenced him to another 18 months of imprisonment in addition to the eight years. Yauhen Prapolski did not appeal the new sentence.
According to the case file, the penal colony administration had been punishing Prapolski for "lying on the floor of the punishment cell", "categorically refusing to clean the corridor of the unit dormitory, the residential section and the local playground", "refusing to occupy the sleeping place allocated to him in the residential section", "not greeting a representative of the penal colony administration".
As of mid-May 2023, the political prisoner is in Remand Prison #5 in Babrujsk.
In late May 2023, it became known that Yauhen Prapolski is serving his sentence in penal colony #20 in Mazyr, Homieĺ region.
Ten political prisoners convicted in Telegram chats case
