Minsk Court Scheduled Hearing In Ales Pushkin Case Eight Months After His Death
Reform.news Editorial Team · 12 November 2026, 16:37
https://reform.news/en/minsk-court-scheduled-hearing-in-ales-pushkin-case-eight-months-after-his-death/The Minsk City Court scheduled a hearing for March 19, 2024, in a criminal case involving a person whose personal details matched those of artist and political prisoner Ales Pushkin, who died in custody on July 11, 2023. The hearing was therefore scheduled eight months after his death.
The information was discovered in a photograph of the court hearing schedule published by Siarhei Melianets, a Protestant preacher currently living in Poland. The post was highlighted by Christian Vision.
The photograph was taken on March 19, 2024, when Melianets visited the Minsk City Court to attend the trial of journalist Ihar Karnei. The criminal case schedule listed Aliaksandr Mikalaevich Pushkin. His first name, patronymic and surname matched those of artist Ales Pushkin, who died in custody on July 11, 2023.
A closed court hearing was scheduled for 4 p.m. in courtroom No. 335. The column indicating the relevant articles of the Criminal Code contained the following entry: “Other matters related to the enforcement of a sentence, ruling or decision.”
“Incidentally, the hearing concerning the deceased man was conducted by the same judge who had convicted him and sentenced him to five years in prison,” Melianets noted.
According to him, this was the last photograph he took on his phone in Belarus. His phone was confiscated after the trial of Ihar Karnei. The preacher managed to obtain the photograph only after moving to Poland.
The schedule does not make it possible to establish exactly what matter the court intended to consider or whether the hearing actually took place.
Political prisoner Ales Pushkin died in a hospital in Hrodna on July 11, 2023. He was taken there from Prison No. 1 unconscious, suffering from a perforated ulcer, peritonitis and multiple organ failure. The artist was buried in the village of Bobr.
In March 2022, Ales Pushkin was sentenced to five years in a high-security penal colony under Part 3 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code (“Incitement of racial, national, religious or other social hatred or discord”) and Article 370 (“Desecration of state symbols”). He was sent to serve his sentence at the “Wolf Holes” penal colony in Ivatsyevichy. In November 2022, his prison regime was tightened and he was transferred to Prison No. 1 in Hrodna.