MINSK -- A Belarusian businessman has been sentenced to five years in prison for "insulting" disputed ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka while commenting on a deadly police shoot-out at a Minsk apartment that left a KGB officer and an IT worker dead in September 2021.
The Minsk-based Vyasna (Spring) human rights center said on February 6 that the Minsk City Court sentenced Hleb Hladkouski five days earlier after finding him guilty of insulting Lukashenka, inciting social hatred, calling for sanctions against Belarus, and obstructing journalistic activities.
Hladkouski was arrested on September 30, 2021, after he posted a comment regarding the police shooting in Minsk several days earlier.
Little is known about the shooting that resulted in the deaths of Andrey Zeltsar, who worked for U.S.-based IT company EPAM, and KGB officer Dzmitry Fedasyuk.
Authorities claimed at the time that “an especially dangerous criminal” had opened fire on security officers after they showed up at his apartment looking for “individuals involved in terrorist activities.”
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Lukashenka has issued thinly veiled threats to people who posted comments on social media praising Zeltsar and criticizing Fedasyuk, saying, "We have all their accounts, and we can see who is who."
Multiple individuals have received prison terms in recent months on charges related to comments about the incident.
Belarus witnessed unprecedented anti-government protests after a presidential election in August 2020 in which Lukashenka claimed victory while rights activists and opposition politicians said the poll was rigged.
Thousands were detained in the subsequent protests and there have been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by security forces. Several people have died during the crackdown.
Lukashenka, 68, has leaned heavily on Russian support amid Western sanctions while punishing the opposition and arresting many of its leaders or forcing them abroad.
The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka's self-declared victory in the 2020 vote.