Today, 21 July, "Viasna" human rights activist and former legal inspector of the REP trade union Leonid Sudalenka was released from Vitsebsk colony № 3, having served his sentence in full.
On 3 November 2021 he was sentenced to three years of imprisonment under parts 1 and 2 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code (organisation and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, as well as training and preparation of persons to participate in such actions, as well as their financing or other material support). The human rights defender was kept behind bars for two and a half years.
Leonid Sudalenko is a human rights defender with 20 years of experience in assisting in the restoration of violated rights of citizens. He helped to prepare and send numerous individual appeals to the UN Human Rights Committee against Belarus.
During 2020, Leonid Sudalenko provided legal assistance in appealing against court decisions for participation in unauthorised rallies held in Gomel after the presidential election.
On 5 January 2021, a search that lasted more than 9.5 hours took place in the socio-political centre, which included the office of Gomelskaya Vyasna. After the search and interrogation he was released, but two weeks later he was detained and placed in custody. The trial was held behind closed doors. More than 200 witnesses were questioned in the case, more than 77 volumes of materials were collected.
On 3 November 2021, Leonid was sentenced to three years in a general regime colony. In the winter of 2022, Leonid was transferred to correctional colony No. 3 "Vitsba", where he worked at a sawmill and dismantled wires.
In October 2022, the Interior Ministry included the political prisoner human rights defender in the list of "persons involved in extremist activities".
Source: spring96.org