Trade unionist and political prisoner Vasil Berasneu turns 73 today, which he celebrates behind bars in SIZO-1, where he has been held since April 2022.
Vasil Berasneu is the leader of the Orsha organization of the independent trade union REP and the acting chairman of the REP, a human rights activist of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee. Arrested on April 19, 2022 as part of a criminal case. Then he was placed in a pre-trial detention center and charged.
On November 25, 2022 the trial over the trade union leaders of the REP started in Minsk city court. Vasil Berasneu was accused of calling to application of restrictive measures, aiming to damage the national security of the Republic of Belarus (part 3 of article 361 of the Criminal Code), inciting other social hatred (part 3 of article 130 of the Criminal Code) and establishment of an extremist formation or participation in it (part 1 and part 3 of article 361-1 of the Criminal Code). Judge Anastasia Popko, on the proposal of prosecutor Raman Biziuk, made the process closed.
On January 5, 2023 the verdict was pronounced: the activists of Belarusian independent trade unions were found guilty. Anastasiya Popko sentenced Vasil Berasneu to nine years of reinforced regime imprisonment.
During his imprisonment, Vasil's health deteriorated considerably, and he suffers from pain in his only kidney. It is known that the symbolic "godfather" of the trade union leader was German Bundestag deputy Detlef Müller.
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