Volha Kukushkina
sentenced to 1 1/2 years of imprisonment, released after serving full sentence
Date of birth: 3 March 1970
Date of detention: 28 January 2022
Charges indicted:
Art. 369 of the Criminal Code — Insulting a government official
Art. 368 of the Criminal Code — Insulting the President of the Republic of Belarus
Sentence: 1 1/2 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a general-security penal colony
Date of release: 7 June 2023
Judge: Andrei Litvin
Volha Kukushkina was accused of insulting Aliaksandr Lukashenka (Article 368 of the Criminal Code, 'Contempt of the President of Belarus') and government officials (Article 369 of the Criminal Code, 'Contempt of a public official').
It is known that in the fall of 2021, her place of residence was searched, and then she was sentenced to 10 days of administrative imprisonment for sharing a post from an “extremist” channel.
In Kukushkina’s phone storage, an image of Lukashenka and Belarusian officials in Nazi uniforms was found, based on which a criminal proceeding was started. According to the investigation, Volha Kukushkina posted that image in a private chat room more than a year before.
On January 28, 2022, Judge Andrei Litvin found her guilty and sentenced her to 18 months of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony. Kukushkina was taken into custody in the courtroom.
The political prisoner served her sentence in women's penal colony #4 in Homieĺ.
On June 7, 2023, the political prisoner was released after serving her sentence in full. She was imprisoned for 1 year, 4 months, and 9 days.
