Updated at 17:53,27-03-2024

“It’s Real Shock For Whole Family.” Drummer Who Took Part In Rallies Jailed For 6 Years

Source: TUT.BY / BelarusFeed

“It’s Real Shock For Whole Family.” Drummer Who Took Part In Rallies Jailed For 6 Years
Aleksey Sanchuk was detained last November during a rehearsal of the drum band which participated in protest rallies. While other musicians were sentenced to administrative arrests and then released, Aleksey was charged in a criminal case. The case materials mention underwater weapons, pyrotechnics and laser pointers, even though these things were found in the garage of another person and did not belong to Sanchuk. Today the man was sentenced to six years of imprisonment in a high-security regime.

Alexey Sanchuk is 30 years old. His wife Anna says that before his arrest, he was assembling furniture. In his spare time, he took part in bike rides and went to drummers’ rehearsals.

“He himself was not a musician. He just wanted to learn the rhythm. On 4 November, his friends asked him to bring some equipment to the rehearsal point, and there he was detained. At first, he was tried under an administrative article, but he was never released. He is the accused in the case alone, other guys were released,” said Anna.

According to the prosecution, Alexey Sanchuk violated the law “On mass events” from June to 4 November 2020. He actively participated in protests, in “riots disguised as mass events”, created a community in a telegram chat, where he called people to unauthorized events, distributed roles for group members at protests, helped to pay out fines [part 1 of article 342 of the Criminal Code].

The protesters, state prosecutor Yevgeny Seryakov read in court, allegedly shouted slogans, used a white-red-white flag as a symbol of protest, clapped their hands. A claim of “Minsktrans” for BYN 161,956 [~$64,000 / €53,000] was attached to the case in connection with the forced suspension of public transport.



In addition, Sanchuk is accused of preparing for riots [Art. 13, Part 2, Art. 293 of the Criminal Code], teaching or other training to participate in riots [Part 3, Art. 293 of the Criminal Codeъ. According to the case materials, he acquired items “that could be used by an outrageous crowd”: pyrotechnic items, firecrackers, aerosols with irritating substances, lasers, optical system items (monoculars), a pneumatic speargun for spearfishing.

“All these items were confiscated in the garage on Nekrasov Street, which belongs to a friend of Lesha. In court, my husband admitted that he had seen objects, but he had nothing to do with them, there were no prints on them. The owner of the seized property went abroad, the lawyer asked to question him via video link, so that he told where he got the pyrotechnics, pneumatics, and how he planned to use this, but the court rejected the petition,” Anna explained.

Alexey pleaded guilty only to active participation in actions that grossly violate public order. He does not deny that he took part in the rallies, but draws attention to the fact that traffic on the roads was blocked not by participants, but by the traffic police. Before being detained in November, he was detained several times under the administrative procedure for participating in rallies.

“I cannot admit my guilt under Article 293 of the Criminal Code (riots), because I did not commit such actions, which the state prosecutor says,” the accused said in court.

“The court studied in detail his bank operations. For example, my mother transferred us 200 rubles. They asked who it was, for what purpose the money was transferred. Yes, there were cases when my husband and his friends helped detained acquaintances, for example, pay for a lawyer, they chipped in and transferred to Lesha’s card, but there was no systematic financing of protest actions on his part,” added Anna.

During the searches, Aleksey had red markers, flags, leaflets, “Chestnaya Gazeta”, banknotes with the image of Tikhanovskaya, “Strana Dlya Zhizni” calendars, white bracelets, paint cans, gas cylinders and other “protest” things. All these objects were used as evidence of Sanchuk’s guilt. In court, Alexey retracted some of the testimonies he gave during the preliminary investigation. He pointed out that the investigator had prevented him from studying his case files.

“I declare that the investigator rushed me, seized the materials during the familiarization. She took parts of the case materials from me and said that I had no right to familiarize myself with them. She forbade me to rewrite the data of the case materials. I ask you to take into account only my questioning in court,” said Aleksey in court.

“He was thrown from one cell to another, placed with people of low social status, only so that he quickly signed the materials of the case. At the trial itself, when asked about the conditions of detention in a pre-trial detention centre, he could not hold back his tears,” said Alexei’s wife.

The state prosecutor requested six years of imprisonment for Aleksey. This, according to Anna, was a real shock for both the accused and his family.

“Lesha had a speech prepared for his final statement in court but after the prosecutor’s speech, he was so confused that he didn’t even say anything. He asked not to separate him from his wife and daughter, she is 8 years old, and she already understands everything, even supports me, says that our dad is a hero, he will be released, and everything will be fine,” said Anna.

Belarusian human rights declared Aleksey Sanchuk a political prisoner: “We consider the persecution of Aleksey Sanchuk under Article 342 of the Criminal Code as politically motivated persecution in connection with the exercise of his freedom of peaceful assembly and expression of his opinion on the announced results of the presidential elections in the Republic of Belarus.”

Today, 13 May, the verdict in the case of Aleksey Sanchuk was announced. Judge Tatiana Pirozhnikova sentenced the political prisoner to six years of imprisonment in a high-security regime colony. Such punishment was earlier requested by Prosecutor Yevgeny Seryakov.