Dzmitry Kazlou
author of the "Seryi Kot" YouTube channel, sentenced to 5 years in prison
Date of birth: 26 April 1988
Date of detention: 10 June 2020
Charges indicted:
Part 1 of Article 13 and Article 293 of the Criminal Code — Preparation for mass riots
Sentence: 5 years
Penalty: imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony
Judge: Iryna Lanchava
Prison: Penal colony No. 2
Statement on the status of a political prisoner
Godparent: Niklas Nienaß, member of the European Parliament
Dzmitry Kazlou is a blogger running a YouTube channel called "Seryi Kot". He was arrested on June 10, 2020 along with several European Belarus activists. The following day, he was sentenced to 20 days in jail and was due to be released on June 30, but remained behind bars. On the same day, it became known that was suspected of committing a crime under Part 1 of Art. 342 of the Criminal Code ("Organization or participation in group actions that grossly violate public order"). The blogger was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1 in Minsk.
On May 25, 2021, Judge Iryna Lanchava of the Mahilioŭ Regional Court sentenced Dzmitry Kazlou to 5 years in a medium-security penal colony. The trial was held behind closed doors, since, as explained in court, “the case file belongs to a secret protected by law.”