Mikita Slepianok
Telegram channel administrator, sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment
Date of birth: 28 August 2000
Date of detention: 6 April 2022
Charges indicted:
Art. 361-1 of the Criminal Code — Creation of an extremist formation, or participation in it
Sentence: 3 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony
Judge: Vasil Biahun
Prison: Penal colony No. 15
Mikita Slepianok is the administrator of the culture and history Telegram channel Rezystans. He was summoned to the police for interrogation on 6 April, after which he was not released. Later it became known that he was detained in a criminal case under Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code (Creation of an extremist formation). The pro-government Telegram channels published a " repentant video" with him in it.
On March 29, after Slepianok had served administrative arrest under Part 2 of Article 19.11 of the Administrative Code (Distribution of extremist materials), his Telegram channel, which currently has 284 subscribers, was declared by the Interior Ministry as an “extremist formation”.
Slepianok was held in pre-trial detention center.
On September 1, 2022, Judge Vasil Biahun started the trial on Slepianok's case in the Homieĺ Regional Court. On September 6, Slepianok was found guilty and sentenced to three years of imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony.
