Radio host and musician Aleh Khamenka sentenced to 3 years in prison

On March 4, Min­sk City Court announced a ver­dict for musi­cian, researcher, and radio host Aleh Khamen­ka. He was found guilty of “facil­i­tat­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties.”

Aleh Khamen­ka. File pho­to: Look­By­Media

Aleh Khamen­ka was con­vict­ed for his ongo­ing coop­er­a­tion with the news­room of Belaru­sian Radio Racy­ja.

The tri­al began on Feb­ru­ary 19, 2026. After sev­er­al hear­ings, on March 4, 2026, Min­sk City Court announced the ver­dict: three years of impris­on­ment and a sub­stan­tial fine of over $6,855.

The crim­i­nal case, as evi­denced by the fact that pieces of Khamenka’s music pro­grams on Radio Racy­ja were sent for expert exam­i­na­tion, was ini­ti­at­ed specif­i­cal­ly for his coop­er­a­tion with the radio sta­tion.

Aleh Khamen­ka was detained in Min­sk on June 17, 2025, after a search of his apart­ment. Ini­tial­ly, based on an admin­is­tra­tive charge, he was placed in the Min­sk Tem­po­rary Deten­tion Cen­ter. In ear­ly July, it became known that a crim­i­nal case had been opened against the radio host and he was trans­ferred to a remand prison.

On July 9, 2025, the Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty rec­og­nized Aleh Khamen­ka as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.

Background

Musi­cian, edu­ca­tor, com­pos­er, pro­duc­er, and radio host Aleh Khamen­ka is known as a pro­mot­er of Belaru­sian music through radio. He is the cre­ator of folk-mod­ern — a new direc­tion in con­tem­po­rary Belaru­sian music — and leader of the pop­u­lar band Palats (Palace).

He grad­u­at­ed from the Belaru­sian State Uni­ver­si­ty of Cul­ture. In 1992, he found­ed the band Palats, with which he record­ed six stu­dio albums. In 2008, he com­plet­ed grad­u­ate stud­ies in cul­tur­al stud­ies at the same uni­ver­si­ty and worked as a senior lec­tur­er in the Vari­ety Show Direc­tion depart­ment.

In 2008, he par­tic­i­pat­ed in the nation­al selec­tion for Euro­vi­sion with the song “Kola Hrukata­la” (The Wheel Rum­bled). In 2009, he cre­at­ed the Bela Music fes­ti­val, held at the Bar­avaya air­field. After 2020, Palats mem­bers remained in the coun­try and occa­sion­al­ly per­formed.

In the 2000s, he cre­at­ed and host­ed the pro­gram Bra­ma Isnasci (Gate of Exis­tence) on Avtora­dio, and from the late 2000s began col­lab­o­rat­ing with Radio Racy­ja. His music pro­grams Tuzin Hitoŭ (Dozen Hits) and Folk-bra­ma (Folk-gate) aired for many years until his deten­tion.

Belaru­sian Radio Racy­ja is a radio sta­tion that broad­casts 24/7 in Belaru­sian in Belarus, Poland, and Lithua­nia on FM and online. It pro­vides infor­ma­tion about socio-polit­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, and cul­tur­al events in Belarus and the world. The medi­a’s news­room has been based in Białys­tok, Poland, since 1999.

Since Sep­tem­ber 2021, access to the radio sta­tion’s web­site for vis­i­tors from Belarus has been blocked by order of the Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion. On Jan­u­ary 16, 2024, by deci­sion of the KGB, Belaru­sian Radio Racy­ja was des­ig­nat­ed an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion.”

Under cur­rent Belaru­sian leg­is­la­tion, per­sons rec­og­nized as par­tic­i­pants in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion can be pros­e­cut­ed for “estab­lish­ing or par­tic­i­pat­ing in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion” or “facil­i­tat­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties”. Penal­ties under these arti­cles include up to 10 years impris­on­ment.