Piotr Yarmashuk
Date of birth: 4 November 1987
Date of detention: 11 June 2023
Charges indicted:
Art. 361-2 of the Criminal Code — Financing the activities of an extremist group
Art. 354 of the Criminal Code - Development, use, distribution or sale of malicious computer programs
Sentence: 4 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Judge: Mikalai Sianko
Prosecutor: Katsiaryna Pakala
Prison: Pre-trial detention center No. 7
Piotr Yarmashuk was first arrested in this case on March 23, 2023. He was released after three days, but on June 11, 2023 he was again arrested and detained.
According to the prosecution, on March 1, 2022, Yarmashuk downloaded several files enabling DDoS attacks. Then "at least 8 times" he ran the program on his computer, as a result of which "the system of protection against DDoS attacks was violated" and "the work of unidentified Internet resources of the Russian Federation was disrupted". Thus, according to the prosecutor's office, Yarmashuk "used malicious computer programs" (Article 354 of the Criminal Code).
Also on August 19, 2020, Yarmashuk transferred about $60 to BySOL (Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code). Seven months later, on March 12, 2021, the Belarusian authorities recognized the BySOL Foundation as an "extremist formation".
On November 24, 2023, Yarmashuk was sentenced to four years of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony. The case was considered in the Brest Regional Court by Judge Mikalai Sianko.
