Hleb Panasiuk, a 34-year-old resident of Svetlahorsk who had lived in Poland for several years, has been sentenced in Belarus to five years in prison, the outlet Gomelskaya Viasna reported.
Panasiuk returned to Belarus on October 8, 2025, to visit his parents. On October 9 he last contacted friends in Poland — he called from the railway station in Brest and said he was boarding a train to Svetlahorsk. After that, contact with him was lost. His friends began searching for him.
In December it became known that Panasiuk was being held in Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 3 in Homiel. Before that he had been held at the Homiel temporary detention facility, where he was placed under an administrative case. The specific charges brought against him are being clarified.
Human rights defenders once again warned about the dangers of returning to Belarus.
