Political persecution:
He was detained on 5 December 2024 in Baranavičy. At the same time, seven former employees of the dissolved independent Baranavičy newspaper Intex-press were also detained. Intex-press had been published from 1994 to 2022. In 2022, it was stripped of its state registration, and in April 2023, the outlet’s website and social media accounts were designated as “extremist materials”.
In 2022, he faced administrative persecution. On 4 January 2022, an offence report was filed against him in Baranavičy under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences for possession of “extremist materials”. Authorities claimed to have found Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf on the computer seized from him during a search in July 2021 at the Intex-press newsroom. Raviaka stated: “I wrote a disagreement with the offence report because I have no idea how such a file appeared on my computer.” He had used the computer since 2013 or 2015, while the file was dated 2007. A hearing was scheduled for 12 January 2022, but did not take place because the case materials were not transferred from the police to the court.
On 19 August 2025, the Baranavičy Regional Court delivered a verdict under Part 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activity), sentencing Raviaka to home confinement and inclusion in the “extremists list”.
Publications:
Kupalskaja kvietka (short story) // Pieršacviet. 1994, No. 7.
Vartavy (short story) // Pieršacviet. 1995, No. 8.
Jon zabłudziŭsia (short story) // Maładosc. 1995, No. 12.
Nie treba nadakučac (sketches) // Pieršacviet. 1996, No. 8.
Spakusa (mystical short story) // Maładosc. 1998, No. 4.
He translated from Polish into Belarusian short stories by Stanisław Lem and the novel Życie rozbrojonego człowieka (The Life of a Disarmed Man) by Sergiusz Piasecki (ARCHE No. 5, 2014).
Place of detention:
Home confinement.