Deputy Director of Mozyr College Convicted for «Facilitating Extremism»

Vasil Kupratsevich is 53 years old, he is originally from Zhitkovichi. The man has a wife and an adult daughter.

Vasil graduated from Mozyr Pedagogical University and has since worked in the field of education. In 2005, Vasil was appointed Deputy Director for educational and upbringing work at the Mozyr State College of Geology. This is the only educational institution of its kind in Belarus that trains drilling rig operators, chemical analysis laboratory assistants, and other skilled workers for the oil and gas and geological industries.

Later, Kupratsevich became Deputy Director for educational and industrial work at the local builders' college. The man often appeared in the press, conducted career guidance, and helped students with job placement.

Outside of work, Vasil is an avid mushroom picker who loves photography. It is also known that Kupratsevich is a hunter and has a weapons license.

The Gomel Regional Court handed Vasil a guilty verdict under parts 1 and 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code of Belarus — «facilitating extremist activity». He was sentenced to home detention.

Mass political repressions in the country began after 2020. At that time, Alexander Lukashenka lost to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya but did not cede power to her, instead forcing her to leave the country. Mass popular protests against the dictatorship and electoral fraud took place. The authorities responded to this with repressions.

According to estimates by the «Belpol» association of law enforcement officers and human rights defenders, the names of at least 10,050 people who have faced politically motivated criminal charges are known. In total, one form or another of political repression (criminal cases, administrative cases, dismissals, searches, forced emigration) has affected hundreds of thousands of Belarusians.

The Belarusian authorities consider «extremism» the demand for free elections with a transparent vote count, as well as virtually any criticism of the authorities, pro-Russian historical narratives, expressions of solidarity with Ukraine, and anti-war protests.

Many recent criminal cases under the article on «facilitating extremism» have been linked to the «Hayun case».

«Belaruski Hayun» is an OSINT monitoring project that was created in 2022 when Russia attacked Ukraine through Belarus. The project tracked the military activity of Russian and Belarusian troops, relying on information from Belarusians. Its activities were coordinated by a group of activists led by Anton Matolka.

The «Hayun case» began after security forces detained an activist who had lived underground in Belarus for several years. On her mobile phone, they found a link to join the Hayun bot, which she had been sent at the very beginning of the project's existence. The fatal mistake was that the link was permanent. Therefore, the security forces were able to connect to the bot and extract all information from it. They obtained messages from accounts that had written to the bot, as well as their IDs and usernames.

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