Pavel Abozny
sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment
Date of birth: 24 January 1983
Date of detention: 9 January 2023
Charges indicted:
Art. 333-1 of the Criminal Code — Illegal cross-border transportation of poisonous, poisonous substances, radioactive materials, weapons, military equipment
Article 361-3 of the Criminal Code — Participation or preparing to participate in hostilities on foreign soil by a Republic of Belarus citizen
Sentence: 5 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony
Judge: Maksim Filatau
Prison: Penal colony No. 1
Pavel Abozny was born in Ukraine. He is a European kickboxing champion.
Presumably, he was arrested for his intention to fight in Ukraine. At the trial, Pavel Abozny said that initially, he overreacted to the war in Ukraine, but later gave up the idea of taking part in military action. Besides, he is accused of illegal transportation of potent substances (100 pills of stanozolol) across the Russia-Belarus state border and illegal acquisition and storage of ammunition (16 cartridge cases of 9 mm caliber and 12 cartridges of 9 mm caliber).
The Hrodna Regional Court found Pavel Abozny guilty under several articles of the Criminal Code:
- Part 3 of Article 295 ('Illegal actions with firearms, ammunition, and explosives')
- Article 333-1 ('Illegal transportation of potent substances, poisonous substances, etc. across the customs border')
- Part 1 of Article 13 ('Preparing to commit a crime')
- Part 1 of Article 361-3 ('Creation of an extremist formation')
Judge Maksim Filatau tried the case from February 20 to April 3, 2023.
On July 20, 2023, Pavel Abozny was included in the 'List of Belarusian citizens, foreign citizens, and stateless persons involved in extremist activities'.
