Stanislau Paulinkovich
sentenced to 3 years of restricted freedom
Date of birth: 20 December 1988
Date of detention: 29 March 2021
Charges indicted:
Art. 391 of the Criminal Code — Insulting a judge
Sentence: 2 years
Penalty: restricted freedom in an open penal facility ("khimiya")
Judge: Maksim Kurpachanka
Prosecutor: Aliaksandr Staravoitau
Prison: Open correctional facility No. 39
Stanislau Paulinkovich is an opposition activist in Mahilioŭ.
On May 2, 2020, Paulinkovich took part in a local protest. On May 8, he was detained and charged with participating in an unauthorized mass event. The activist was sentenced to 15 days in prison. A couple of days before his release, on May 21, Paulinkovich was taken to court again to stand trial for disobeying police. The trial was secret, as neither journalists, nor human rights activists and even the defendant's family knew that he had been taken out of the detention center for another trial.
Under one of the police reports, Paulinkovich was fined 1,215 rubles, under the other - another 15 days of detention. It was at this moment that Paulinkovich verbally attacked Judge Aksana Ratnikava, using words of varying degrees of insult. For this he was charged under Art. 391 of the Criminal Code (insult of a judge).
On October 29, Judge Kurpachanka of the Mahilioŭ District Court sentenced Paulinkovich to three years in an open correctional facility. The sentence was reduced by one year due to an amnesty.
On March 29, 2021, Paulinkovich was sent to serve his sentence at penitentiary No. 39 in the town of Krupki.