Valeria Kastsiuhova

Vale­ria Kast­si­uho­va, polit­i­cal sci­en­tist, jour­nal­ist, behind bars since 30 June 2021.

Vale­ria Kast­si­uho­va, founder and long-time edi­tor of the Nashe Mne­nie expert com­mu­ni­ty web­site and author of the Belaru­sian Year­book pub­li­ca­tion, was arrest­ed on 30 June 2021. She was charged with «con­spir­a­cy or oth­er actions aimed at seiz­ing pow­er», «com­plic­i­ty in crimes» and «encour­ag­ing actions aimed at harm­ing the nation­al secu­ri­ty of Belarus.» The details of the case have not been dis­closed, since the lawyer signed a non-dis­clo­sure state­ment. The ver­dict was hand­ed down on 17 March 2023.

Vale­ria Kastsiuhova’s father died while she was in cus­tody. Human rights activists rec­og­nized her as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.

Sen­tence: 10 years of impris­on­ment under Part 1 Arti­cle 357 (con­spir­a­cy or oth­er actions aimed at seiz­ing pow­er) and Part 3 Arti­cle 361 of the Crim­i­nal Code (encour­ag­ing actions aimed at harm­ing the nation­al secu­ri­ty of Belarus).

Judge: Dzi­na Kuchuk

Birth­day: 30 Decem­ber 1967