Uladzimir Kniha
volunteer with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's campaign, sentenced to 4 years in prison
Date of birth: 25 March 1981
Date of detention: 4 June 2020
Charges indicted:
Art. 342 of the Criminal Code — Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them
Art. 364 of the Criminal Code — Violence or threat of violence against an employee of the internal affairs bodies
Sentence: 4 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a high security prison
Judge: Volha Bekushava
Prosecutor: Mikita Myslivets
Prison: Pre-trial detention center No. 8
Statement on the status of a political prisoner
Godparent: Sebastian Schaefer, member of the German Bundestag
Uladzimir Kniha is a defendant in the "Tsikhanouski case" initiated after the election picket of May 29, 2020 in Hrodna. He is a former police officer and a volunteer with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's presidential campaign.
On May 29, during an election picket held in Hrodna to collect signatures in support of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's nomination, police detained her husband, head of her nomination group and author of the popular YouTube channel "A Country For Living" Siarhei Tsikhanouski, together with at least 15 other people. The detention came after several women physically attacked the blogger. The police intervened and a police officer fell, which was used as a pretext to arrest Tsikhanouski and other participants. A criminal case was instituted under Article 342 of the Criminal Code (organization and active participation in group actions that grossly violate public order).
Kniha was detained on June 4. He also faced charges under Art. 364 of the Criminal Code (violence against a police officer).
On June 2, 2021, after a long trial at the Kastryčnicki District Court of Hrodna, Kniha was sentenced to four years in a maximum-security penal colony.