Mikalai Klimovich

Affiliated media: Blogger

Incident date: February 28, 2023

Attack type:

• Court trial

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Vitsebsk

Additional information:

61-year-old blogger from Pinsk Mikalai Klimovich died in custody. The death occurred in the Vitsebsk penal colony № 3, where the convict had been recently transferred to serve his sentence. On February 28, 2023, Mikalai Klimovich was sentenced to one year of jail under Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (Insulting the President of Belarus) for posting a caricature of Aliaksandr Lukashenka on social networks. The case was conducted by the judge of Pinsk and the Pinsk district Andrei Bychyla, the punishment was requested by prosecutor Ilya Huzarevich. Until the end of April, Klimovich was kept in the pre-trial detention centre in Baranavichy. Both during the trial and the appeal, he explained to the judges and the prosecutor that he had a group II disability due to heart disease and that he needed proper medical care. However, this was not taken into account and the appeal was rejected. After that, the convict was sent to a colony near Vitsebsk, where he died almost immediately.