Pavel Piaskou
sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment
Political prisoner
Date of birth: 14 June 1989
Date of detention: 18 September 2020
Charges indicted:
- Art. 363 of the Criminal Code — Resistance to a police officer or other person guarding public order
- Art. 411 — Malicious disobedience to the demands of administration of the correctional institution
Sentence: 4 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a maximum-security penal colony
Judge: Viktoryia Paliashchuk
Prosecutor: Siarhei Habrukovich
Prison: Pre-trial detention center No. 1
Statement on the status of a political prisoner
Godparent: Anja Liebert, member of the German Bundestag
Pavel Piaskou is from Maladziečna, Minsk Region. Before his arrest, he took care of his sick grandmother.
Pavel Piaskou was accused of resisting the riot police with violence during the detention of peaceful protesters at a rally on June 19, 2020, in Maladziečna. On that day, the police arbitrarily used disproportionate violence to detain one of the protesters, claiming that he was actively involved in an unauthorized event. Pavel Piaskou was among several dozen people who were trying to prevent the detention of the peaceful assembly participants.
A criminal case was opened against Pavel Piaskou under Part 2 of Article 363 of the Criminal Code (Resistance to a police officer). He was released until the trial under a written undertaking not to leave the country. Together with Piaskou, Uladzislau Yeustsihneyeu was a defendant in the case.
On September 29, 2020, the Maladziečna District Court convicted Pavel Piaskou under Part 2 of Article 363 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to 3 years and 3 months of imprisonment. Uladzislau Yeustsihneyeu was sentenced to three months shorter imprisonment.
On November 20, the Minsk City Court upheld the sentence.
After his appeal was dismissed, Pavel Piaskou was transferred from prison #8 in Žodzina to penal colony #2 in Babrujsk, Mahilioŭ region.
In his letter dated January 12, 2022, Piaskou informed that he would be kept in a punishment cell. It is known that the penal colony administration often applies this penalty against the political prisoner.
On 14 June 2022, a criminal case against Pavel Piaskou under Article 411 of the Criminal Code (Malicious disobedience to the demands of the penal institution administration) was heard in the Babrujsk and Babrujsk District Court. As a result, Judge Pavel Kartsinin sentenced the political prisoner to one more year of imprisonment and, after the terms were combined, to 4 years in a maximum-security penal colony (at the time of sentencing the political prisoner had 21 months left to serve). Pavel Piaskou was in remand prison #5 in Babrujsk and in July he was transferred to penal colony #5 in Ivacevičy, Brest region.
Pavel was released from prison on February 28, 2024.
