Yury Adamau
sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment
Date of birth: 12 January 1976
Date of detention: 9 March 2023
Charges indicted:
Art. 361-2 of the Criminal Code — Financing the activities of an extremist group
Sentence: 3 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Judge: Dzina Kuchuk
Prosecutor: Raman Biziuk
Prison: Penal colony No. 3
Yury Adamau is a member of the Belarusian community for free software and a co-creator of the Pamylka sci-pop zine in Belarusian. He studied theoretical physics at the Belarusian State University. He received a Ph.D. at the University of Warwick (England) in the physics of condensed states. He did postdoctoral research at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (New York, USA) on improving numerical simulations for strongly correlated systems and another postdoctoral research in condensed matter physics theory at Texas A&M University (USA).
His colleagues reported the arrest of Yury Adamau in early March 2023. Later it became known that he had been placed in remand prison #1 in Minsk. According to human rights defenders, the scientist is charged under Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code ('Financing of extremist activities'). According to pro-government media, Adamau was arrested for 24 donations to the BySol and ByHelp initiatives totaling $1,590.
On July 24, 2023, the Minsk City Court, found Yury Adamau guilty and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony. Judge Dzina Kuchuk tried the case, with Raman Biziuk as the prosecutor.
