Александр Елисеев
Public activist from Kalinkavichy and former member of the United Civic Party, Aliaksandr Yeliseyeu, has been sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony, reports Homiel Viasna. The trial was held behind closed doors.
Yeliseyeu was found guilty under Article 356 of the Criminal Code on high treason and Article 368 on insulting Lukashenka. The substance of the charges remains unknown. Until the verdict enters into legal force, Yeliseyeu continues to be held in the pretrial detention cells of Prison No. 4 in Mahiliou.
Aliaksandr Yeliseyeu is a public activist from Kalinkavichy and a former member of the United Civic Party, which was dissolved in Belarus. He repeatedly took part in independent election observation at various levels and documented violations of democratic procedures. Yeliseyeu also refused to pay fines imposed on him in politically motivated administrative cases.
In 2020 and later, the authorities repeatedly detained Yeliseyeu and sentenced him to lengthy administrative arrests. During one such detention, in February 2022, five days before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he went on a hunger strike. At that time, Russian troops were stationed in the vicinity of Kalinkavichy and Mazyr. The formal grounds for Yeliseyeu’s arrest were allegations of “petty hooliganism.”
By training, Yeliseyeu is a specialist in the aviation industry. He graduated from the Kyiv International University of Civil Aviation (now the Kyiv Aviation Institute). He worked for some time at aircraft manufacturing enterprises in Ukraine and later as a software developer in Belarus.
The exact date of Yeliseyeu’s detention is unknown. In November last year, it became known that he was being held in the pretrial detention cells of Prison No. 4 in Mahiliou. A source within the institution informed human rights defenders about this. On Nov. 14, 2025, the Belarusian human rights community recognized Aliaksandr Yeliseyeu as a political prisoner.