Vaitsiakhouski, Who Returned From Poland, Sentenced to Four Years of “Home Khimiya”

Reform.news · 2 October 2026, 22:43

https://reform.news/en/vaitsiakhouski-who-returned-from-poland-sentenced-to-four-years-of-home-khimiya/

Anatol Vaitsiakhouski, who returned to Belarus from Poland, has been sentenced to four years of so-called “home khimiya,” or restricted freedom without being sent to a correctional facility. Propagandist Kseniya Lebedzeva revealed the sentence in a program discussing the possibility of stripping Belarusians who have left the country of their citizenship.

According to Lebedzeva, Vaitsiakhouski was accused of facilitating “extremist” activities, insulting Lukashenka and calling for sanctions. He was sentenced under four articles of the Criminal Code to four years of “home khimiya.” She described the sentence as lenient, saying that “under normal circumstances, the minimum would have been around four years in a penal colony.”

“I go to work. On weekends, I stay at home in my apartment. My bank cards are blocked. And my phone is blocked,” Vaitsiakhouski said about his life after the sentence.

It was reported yesterday that Vaitsiakhouski had been removed from the list of “persons involved in terrorist activities” maintained by the Belarusian KGB.

***

In the 1990s, Vaitsiakhouski founded Shag, one of the first private newspapers in Baranavichy, and went into business in the 2000s. In April 2023, Vaitsiakhouski was detained over comments he had posted. He was evacuated to Poland with the help of BYSOL.

In March last year, Vaitsiakhouski and another activist, Uladzimir Usser, with whom he shared an apartment in Bialystok, appeared in the Belarusian state television propaganda film “Foreign Sky,” in which Belarusians spoke about the difficulties of life in exile. As it turned out, both men had been deceived into appearing in the film.

In November 2025, Usser was detained by Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW). He was charged with acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service against Poland. Due to his health, Uladzimir was not placed in custody. He was initially hospitalized and later stayed at a shelter in Bialystok. He died in early December.

After Usser’s death, Vaitsiakhouski stopped showing up for his taxi job, deleted his Telegram profile and switched off his phone. He then unexpectedly resurfaced in Belarus and appeared in a propaganda video.