Natallia Turava
sentenced to 13 months in prison, pardoned
Date of birth: 4 July 1972
Date of detention: 18 August 2021
Charges indicted:
Art. 368 of the Criminal Code — Insulting the President of the Republic of Belarus
Art. 377 of the Criminal Code — Destruction of official documents
Sentence: 13 months
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Date of release: 9 March 2022
Judge: Dzmitryi Shuryn
Prosecutor: Mikhail Yushchuk
Natallia Turava was sentenced on August 18, 2021 to one year and one month of imprisonment in a penal colony by the Lieninski District Court of Brest under Part 1 of Art. 368 of the Criminal Code for insulting the president and Part 1 of Art. 377 of the Criminal Code for damaging a protocol.
According to the prosecution, on May 27, 2021, the police arrived at Natallia's home. There, the woman “publicly insulted” Lukashenka with the words “we have a fricking state” and “fricking president”, by which, in the opinion of the state prosecution, committed a crime under Part 1 of Art. 368 of the Criminal Code. An hour after saying these words, the investigators searched the woman's apartment. During the raid, according to the prosecution, "wishing to express her superiority and permissiveness," Turava ripped up a police protocol. By doing this, the woman “damaged an official document” (Part 1 of article 377 of the Criminal Code).
After the announcement of the verdict, Natallia was taken into custody.
On March 9, 2022, human rights defenders learned that Natallia and several other women had been pardoned.
