The Minsk City Court sentenced musician Sergei Mikhalko to four years in a general-security colony in absentia, the Belarusian human rights group Vyasna reported, citing the prosecutor's office.
Mikhalko was found guilty on two charges: public insult of the Belarusian president and incitement of social enmity. According to the prosecution, in 2021–2022 the musician published videos on the social media accounts of his band Brutto containing a "negative assessment" of Alexander Lukashenko expressed, as the investigation noted, in an indecent form.
The second charge stemmed from a video address Mikhalko recorded in March 2022 after Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, Meduza reported. According to the investigation, the address contained a negative assessment of security forces aimed at inciting enmity based on professional affiliation.
Last year, Belarusian authorities declared "extremist" the Lyapis Trubetskoy song "Ne byts skotam" ("Don't Be Cattle"), written to verses by poet Yanka Kupala. Which specific statements by Mikhalko prompted the criminal prosecution was not specified.
Sergei Mikhalko is a Belarusian and Ukrainian musician, one of the founders of the bands Lyapis Trubetskoy and Brutto. Since 2015 he has lived in Ukraine, where he received a residence permit, and in 2020 he was named an Honored Artist of Ukraine.