Mikita Yemialyanau
anarchist, sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison
Prisoner
Date of birth: 24 March 2000
Date of detention: 20 October 2019
Charges indicted:
- Art. 218 of the Criminal Code — Intentional destruction or damage to property committed in a generally dangerous manner or causing damage on a large scale
- Art. 341 of the Criminal Code — Desecration of structures and damage to property
- Art. 295 of the Criminal Code — Unlawful acts against firearms, ammunition and explosives
- Art. 411 — Malicious disobedience to the demands of administration of the correctional institution
Sentence: 6 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a high security prison
Judge: Aliaksandr Yakunchykhin, Aksana Ratnikava
Prosecutor: Maksim Seniu
Prison: Prison No. 1
Groups: Activists
Notes: Prison security level
Statement on the status of a political prisoner
Godparent: Helena Kennedy,member of the House of Lords
Mikita Yemialyanau, an anarchist, was sentenced on February 12, 2020, by the Lieninski District Court of Minsk to seven years' imprisonment.
On March 27, the Minsk City Court heard the convict's appeal and reduced the term to 4 years in a medium-security colony.
On May 29, Yemialyanau was subjected to maximum-security rules, and on June 9, he was transferred to Prison No. 4 in Mahilioŭ.
The administration of Mahilioŭ prison consistently imposed solitary confinement on him.
Mikita was confined to a cell for the following periods: August–September 2021 (42 days), October–November 2021 (30 days), December 2021–January 2022 (13 days), and January–February 2022 (38 days). In total, Mikita was held in inhumane conditions for more than five months, without bedding and daily walks.
On January 27, 2022, a hearing of the criminal case against Mikita Yemialyanau for 'malicious disobedience to the demands of the administration of the correctional institution' (Part 2 of Article 411 of the Criminal Code) began in his prison. It is known that Mikita had protested against the prison administration, which refused to pass him letters for trumped-up reasons. The trial was adjourned due to the illness of Judge Ratnikava.
Mikita was placed in a punishment cell until February 23. He was kept there for 38 days in a row. This is the fifth time since August 2021 that a political prisoner has been punished in this way. In total, Mikita spent more than five months without bedding and daily walks in inhumane conditions.
On February 3, Mikita went on a hunger strike in protest, which he kept for 10 days. Until March 4, he was once again placed in a punishment cell.
On March 9, 2022, the hearings resumed. On March 11 Judge Aksana Ratnikava imposed the maximum punishment for Mikita Yemialyanau under his article, sentencing him to two years in prison. The sentence was combined with the previous one, so Mikita has to serve three years and six months in a maximum-security penal colony.
The next day after the trial, on March 12, Mikita was placed back in the punishment cell for 46 days.
On June 13, 2022, Mikita Yemialyanau was transferred to penal colony #11 in Vaŭkavysk (Hrodna region). Immediately upon the arrival to the penal colony, he was placed in a punishment cell for 18 days, and later, in August, for another 7 days. The reasons for the punishments are still unknown. In addition, the political prisoner was deprived of a short visit. On October 25, he was placed in a tighter security cell. The next day he was placed in a punishment cell for 10 days, and then placed back to the tighter security cell.
On the eve of the New Year, Mikita Yemialyanau was again placed in a punishment cell for 10 days, and for another 15 days in February. Besides, his correspondence is blocked and books have not been given to him for 8 months.
On March 23, 2023, Judge Mikalai Siarheika of the Vaŭkavysk District Court ruled to transfer Mikita Yemialyanau to a high-security prison. The political prisoner was transferred to Hrodna Prison No. 1.
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Political prisoner Mikita Jemialjanaw in solitary confinement for 38 days
