The Homiel Regional Court has delivered a verdict against 32-year-old Minsk resident Alyaksandr Rusakovich, who was charged under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activity) and Part 1 of Article 368 (insulting Lukashenka).
The exact sentence remains unknown. However, according to the publication “Homielskaya Viasna,” the court did not impose imprisonment. It is presumed that Rusakovich received a non-custodial restriction of freedom (“home chemistry”).
The substance of the charges is being clarified. There is a possibility that the case is linked to the investigation involving the monitoring channel Belaruski Hajun, the outlet reports.
Alyaksandr Rusakovich is a PhD in Economics and an associate professor. He previously worked at the Institute of System Research in the Agro-Industrial Complex of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and taught at the Belarusian State Technological University.
The hearing took place in Homiel because, according to human rights groups, several Minsk court cases have been transferred to the regions due to workload.
Belaruski Hajun is an OSINT monitoring project tracking military activity of Russian and Belarusian forces. The monitoring group was created shortly before the Russian-Ukrainian war by activist Anton Matolka. In early February 2025, security forces gained access to the project’s bot chat. Following this, the project announced that it would cease operations.
The human rights centre Viasna reports that at least 124 individuals have been detained as part of the “Hajun case.”
