Yury Chudzinovich
truck driver sentenced to 4 years
Date of birth: 12 July 1972
Date of detention: 15 July 2021
Charges indicted:
Art. 130 of the Criminal Code — Incitement to hatred
art. 188 of the Criminal Code — Defamation
Art. 174 of the Criminal Code — Evasion of parents from content of children or from reimbursement of expenses, incured by the state for content of children who are on the state providing
Sentence: 4 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a high security prison
Judge: Ruslana Sianko
Prosecutor: Aliaksandr Zheshka
Prison: Pre-trial detention center No. 8
Statement on the status of a political prisoner
Godparent: Yannick Bury, member of the German Bundestag
Yury Chudzinovich was detained in July 2021. He was engaged in entrepreneurship, then worked as a truck driver. In the 2020 elections, he tried to register as a presidential candidate but was refused by the CEC. Before the 2020 elections, he started actively running the YouTube channel "Kropka niezvarotu” (Point of No Return) with more than 40,000 subscribers, where he posted videos about the protests. Among other things, statements from this channel formed the basis of the criminal case against Chudzinovich.
In July 2021 the man was placed in custody, and in December he was convicted under three articles of the Criminal Code:
- Art. 130 of the Criminal Code (Incitement to hatred) for commenting on the Russian military officers.
- Art. 188 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (Defamation) for statements on YouTube about Iryna Markhel, a social pedagogue of the gymnasium No. 3 in Baranavičy.
- Art. 174 of the Criminal Code (Evasion of child support;) for–according to the prosecution–he did not pay child support for his daughter. Chudzinovich was divorced from his wife, and in December 2020 she died.
He was sentenced to four years in general-security penal colony.
On 27 April 2022, the Shklou District Court Judge Aliaksandr Tarakanau ruled to increase the custody level of a political prisoner. Since May 1, 2022, the Yury has been kept in Žodzina prison No. 8.
