MINSK, May 25. /TASS/. Seven Belarusian opposition activists have been sentenced to various prison terms on riot charges, the Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Based on the evidence provided by the prosecution, the Mogilevsky District Court found Yevgeny Afnagel, Andrei Voinich, Pavel Severinets, Pavel Yukhnevich, Maxim Vinyarsky, Dmitry Kozlov and Irina Schastnaya guilty of preparations to participate in mass riots, involving personal violence, mayhem, arson, destruction of property and armed resistance against state officials, under Articles 13.1 and 293.2 of the Belarusian Criminal Code," the statement reads.
Severinets, Afnagel and Voinich have been sentenced to seven years in a colony, Yukhnevich, Vinyarsky and Kozlov were handed five-year jail sentences and Schastnaya got a four-year term.
Belarusian human rights activists are portraying the convicts as political prisoners.
Severinets was detained in Minsk in early June 2020 after a protest rally near a place where signatures were being gathered for alternative presidential candidates. Belarusian authorities designated it as an unauthorized activity and on August 20, a criminal case was opened against him under Article 293.2 of the Belarusian Criminal Code (participation in mass riots). Blogger Kozlov was also apprehended in June 2020, three other defendants in the case were detained in September last year. The other two defendants were taken into custody in November 2020 and January 2021.