{"id":545913,"date":"2026-05-27T14:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=545913"},"modified":"2026-05-27T14:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:54:31","slug":"new-criminal-case-opened-against-former-political-prisoner-illia-mironau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/new-criminal-case-opened-against-former-political-prisoner-illia-mironau","title":{"rendered":"New Criminal Case Opened Against Former Political Prisoner Illia Mironau"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>A criminal case has been opened against former political prisoner <strong>Illia Mironau<\/strong>\u00a0under the article on laundering proceeds obtained through criminal activity (Part 1 of Article 235 of the Criminal Code).<\/p>\n<p>Mironau\u2019s photograph has been placed on an information board at the Homiel District Internal Affairs Department.<\/p>\n<p><em><i>\u201cThis is an obvious attempt by the Lukashenka regime to shift political persecution into the economic sphere. The logic of the punitive authorities is simple: if I helped people, then I must have been \u2018laundering money\u2019. But the truth is that all of my so-called \u2018criminal activity\u2019 after being released from SIZO-3 in Homiel consisted of open civic solidarity:<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>1. I transferred money to those who remained behind bars.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>2. I wrote letters of support and paid bills for my own detention in the temporary detention facility.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>3. I monitored court hearings and shared the information obtained with independent media and human rights defenders.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>While in Lithuania, I continue to support independent media, human rights defenders and the Armed Forces of Ukraine (including Belarusian volunteers),\u201d<\/i><\/em> Mironau <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02SJaGPdgU46ahsxVRUDRGXFbaRE5GeXL7djuxdX3pY5ZSt63DSZhSC9bN4HhsZCjxl&amp;id=100094195975791\">wrote<\/a> on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>The activist believes the new criminal case was opened to discredit the idea of helping others and restrict his activities abroad.<\/p>\n<p><em><i>\u201cMy conclusion is simple: accusations of \u2018money laundering\u2019 are an admission of the powerlessness of Lukashenka\u2019s criminal regime. They cannot stop solidarity, so they are trying to criminalise it.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>I continue my work, studies and support for those who are currently facing the greatest difficulties. No wanted notices on the walls of police departments will change the fact that helping people is not a crime but the duty of every decent person,\u201d<\/i><\/em> Mironau wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Illia Mironau is an activist from Homiel. In 2022, he was sentenced to 1.5 years in a penal colony under the article on discrediting Belarus. Mironau was released in the courtroom because his time in pre-trial detention had been counted toward his sentence. After that, he was detained several times under administrative charges. Mironau later left Belarus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A criminal case has been opened against former political prisoner Illia Mironau\u00a0under the article on laundering proceeds obtained through criminal activity (Part 1 of Article 235 of the Criminal Code). Mironau\u2019s photograph has been placed on an information board at the Homiel District Internal Affairs Department. \u201cThis is an obvious attempt by the Lukashenka regime [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":545912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6a16db7b631bc.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"New Criminal Case Opened Against Former Political Prisoner Illia Mironau"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-society"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}