Political prisoner Yegor Dudnikov sentenced to 11 years in prison
Yegor Dudnikov in court
On December 27, the Minsk City Court announced a verdict in the criminal case against a 21-year-old political prisoner and a Russian citizen Yegor Dudnikov. Judge Siarhei Khrypach sentenced Yegor to 11 years in a high security prison, just as the prosecutor Zhanna Baranava requsted. That is almost the maximum possible punishment under these articles.
Yegor Dudnikov was detained on May 4 in Minsk, severely beaten and tortured, as he said. For seven months, he was held in a pre-trial detention center under Part 1 of Art. 342 of the Criminal Code for dubbing videos and audio messages in a telegram channel. But in the end, Yegor was convicted under completely different articles of the Criminal Code: Part 3 of Art. 130 (incitement to hostility or discord) and Part 3 of Art. 361 (calls for actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of Belarus).
Dudnikov’s trial was held behind closed doors in order “not to spread extremist production” and “to protect personal data of an official Kniazeu.”
Earlier, Russian diplomats declared that they would seek the extradition of Russian citizen Yegor Dudnikov.
