On November 24, 2021, the Prosecutor General’s Office recognized the Bierazino Chronicles, which had 429 subscribers, as extremist.
On December 22, 2021, Pavieł Vinahradaŭ was arrested in his home in Bierazino.
Pavieł Vinahradaŭ was arrested for a single post on Facebook. The first linguistic examination did not reveal the composition of the crime. The investigator appointed a new examination, with reformulated questions; the expert’s name was classified, after which the “criminal” words were revealed. Charges were brought under three articles of the Criminal Code: Art. 342 (organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order or active participation in them), Art. 130 (incitement to racial, national, religious or other social enmity), Art. 367 (slander against the President of the Republic of Belarus).
On December 27, 2021, Pavieł Vinahradaŭ was recognized as a political prisoner.
In January 2022, Pavieł Vinahradaŭ was transferred from the Pre-trial detention center of Žodzina to pre-trial prison No. 8, where he was registered as “prone to extremism and other destructive activities.”
Pavieł Vinahradaŭ had been recognized as a political prisoner twice before. In 2008, for participating in a rally of entrepreneurs, he was sentenced to 2 years of restriction of liberty without being sent to a colony. On January 5, 2011, he was arrested for participating in a protest against the falsification of the 2010 elections. He was later accused of organizing mass riots and participating in them, as well as insulting national symbols, he was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment in a high-security prison. He served his sentence in Ivacevičy in Colony No. 22.
On March 10, 2022, the trial in the criminal case of Pavieł Vinahradaŭ began in the Minsk Regional Court.
On March 16, Pavieł Vinahradaŭ was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment.
On June 28, 2022, the KGB added the political prisoner to the list of persons “involved in terrorist activities.”
On July 8, 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs included the political prisoner in the “List of persons involved in extremist activities”.
On July 28, 2022, Pavieł Vinahradaŭ was transferred from Penal Colony No. 11 to Colony No. 12 in Orsha. It is known that Pavieł was deprived of a long date for sleeping during the day – now the political prisoner is officially recognized as a “vicious violator of the prison regime.” Pavieł was diagnosed with tuberculosis and lost 36 kg. It is known that the administration of PC No. 12 issued three reports on the political prisoner, placed Vinahradaŭ in a punishment cell on August 23, and deprived him of all the packages. On September 22, Pavieł was released from the punishment cell, but immediately after that he was accused of “violating the regime” once again, so he was transferred for six months to a “special ward” – a prison cell suitable for tuberculosis patients.
In February 2023, it became known that Pavieł Vinahradaŭ was cured of tuberculosis and sent to PC No. 11 in Vaŭkavysk.
Mail address: Pavieł Vinahradaŭ PC No. 11, 231900, Vaŭkavysk, vulica Rakasouskaha 118.