Convicted sound engineer Yury Trashchynski added to “extremist” list

On July 17, the per­son­al details of Yury Trashchyn­s­ki, who was sen­tenced to prison, were added to the Belaru­sian Inte­ri­or Ministry’s list of indi­vid­u­als “linked to extrem­ist activ­i­ties.” The reg­istry indi­cates that the sound engi­neer is already serv­ing his sen­tence.

Illus­tra­tion cre­at­ed by BAJ using Chat­G­PT

BAJ has learned that on May 4, 2026, Yury Trashchyn­s­ki was sen­tenced to 2.5 years’ impris­on­ment.

The Homiel Region­al Court found him guilty of par­tic­i­pa­tion in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion. The charge against the sound engi­neer stemmed from his work with the radio sta­tion Białoruskie Radio Racy­ja.

In addi­tion, Judge Siarhei Salous­ki of the Homiel Region­al Court, who presided over the case, imposed a fine of $7,780.

Yury Trashchyn­s­ki dis­agreed with the Homiel Region­al Court’s rul­ing and appealed to a high­er court. On July 7, 2026, a pan­el of the Supreme Court dis­missed his appeal and left the sen­tence unchanged.

Secu­ri­ty forces detained Yury Trashchyn­s­ki on Novem­ber 15, 2025, when he trav­eled from Poland to Min­sk.

He was ini­tial­ly charged under an admin­is­tra­tive arti­cle and placed in deten­tion for 15 days. How­ev­er, upon com­plet­ing that term, Trashchyn­s­ki did not walk free from the deten­tion cen­ter — in the mean­time, a crim­i­nal case had been opened against him, and he was trans­ferred to a remand cen­ter.

Yury Trashchyn­s­ki worked for more than 20 years as a sound engi­neer at Bel­tel­era­dio­com­pa­ny, the Belaru­sian state broad­cast­ing com­pa­ny. Dur­ing the post-elec­tion protests of 2020, he signed a peti­tion against police vio­lence.

Białoruskie Radio Racy­ja was des­ig­nat­ed an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion” by the KGB on Jan­u­ary 16, 2024.