Valiantsin Fedarenka
Date of birth: 16 July 1960
Date of detention: 20 August 2022
Charges indicted:
Art. 361-4 of the Criminal Code — Promoting extremist activities
Sentence: unknown
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Judge: Aliaksandr Piskunou
Prison: Penal colony No. 3
Valiantsin Fedarenka is a pensioner from Gomel who has a mental illness. He is charged under Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code ('Assistance to an extremist formation').
On October 12, the Homel Regional Court charged Fedarenka under Part 1 and Part 2 of Art. 361-4. The case was considered by the judge Aliaksandr Piskunou.
According to the prosecution, Fedarenka sent 160 SMS messages to the Belsat PolishTV channel about the movements of the Russian armored vehicles in Gomel and about the takeoffs of the Russian military aircraft.
At the trial, Fedarenka fully admitted his guilt and repented. He said that he had not known that Belsat is an extremist organization. He saw the phone number on Youtube on a TV that connects to the Internet. Later, the TV was seized as a 'means of committing the crime'.
Fedarenka has an incurable mental illness that was diagnosed back in the 1980s and was confirmed by an expert in court. Besides, he suffers from a spinal disease.
