Олег Лойко
The health of political prisoner Aleh Loika, a pastor of the Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith, has seriously deteriorated behind bars, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.
According to human rights defenders, he is suffering from heart pain, and spinal disc herniations make it difficult for him to walk.
The 49-year-old pastor Aleh Loika was detained in April 2025 and later sentenced in the so-called Hajun case. He was charged under Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activity) and sentenced to three and a half years in a penal colony under a strict regime.
Loika is a pastor of the Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith in the village of Nebytau in the Khoiniki district. It is known that in December 2024 he was sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest for “disseminating extremist materials”.
For many years, the pastor was involved in the rehabilitation of people with drug addiction as part of the Return mission. Thanks to his work, hundreds of people returned to normal life. State media had previously written about him repeatedly in a positive light.