Andrei Marach | Andrey Marach
Arrest Date: 02.03.2021
Charges:
– gross public disorder;
– damage to private property;
– participation in criminal organization.
Sentence: 5 years + €5,600 fine
Place of detention: IK-17
Release date: 02.03.2025
Andrey is from the city of Brest, born on 10 November 1995.
Political views
Andrey positions himself as an anti-fascist. He has been interested in football for a very long time.
The history of detention and the case
Earlier Andrey was repeatedly arrested on the administrative cases for participation in the actions and protests of 2020 or preventively.
March 2, 2021 in Brest a number of activists and young people, who were probably on the list of Main Department for Combating Organized Crime as politically unreliable, were detained. During the week Aleksandr Kozlyanko, Andrey Marach, Pavel Shpetny, Nikita Dranets, Daniil Chul’, Aleksey Golovko were detained.
Each of the detainees was charged with gross violation of order (Art. 342) and participation in an international criminal organisation (Art. 285.2).
It later became clear that the activists Akikhiro Gaevsky-Khanada, Andrey Chepyuk i Aleksandr Frantskevich, detained back in August-September 2020, and human rights activist Marfa Rabkova were also charged with the same case.
By the beginning of the trial the majority of the detained were charged under three-dozen articles of the Criminal Code. The grounds for the charges were the anarchists’ actions against the battery factory (blocking the Brest-Minsk highway), the participation of anarchists in the march of Non-sclackers in Brest in 2017 and graffiti. Interestingly, at one time the march of Non-slackers was qualified as a mass event and some anarchists received an administrative arrest for it. For some reason, 4 years later, they decided to initiate a criminal case.
Sentence
On April 25, 2022 in Minsk city court the hearing of the “international criminal organization” of anarchists began. According to the investigation, the activists of the Revolutionary Action in Belarus, Revolutionary Freedom in Ukraine and People’s Self-Defense in Russia created a criminal organization to undermine the regimes.
On September 6, 2022, Judge Sergey Hripach pronounced the verdict to the 10 defendants in the case of international criminal organization.
Andrey was sentenced to 5 years in a reinforced regime colony and a fine of about €5,600.
Detention conditions
Andrey has received letters in the colony only from his mum. Periodically, the administration of the colony prohibits handovers, visits for Andrey.
Relatives
Andrey’s mum is waiting for him at home.
Write online a letter:
Address to support
IK-17, ul. 1-ya Zavodskaya, 8, g. Shklov, 213004, Belarus
Andrey Igorevich Marach
📧 How do one write letters to prisoners in Belarus so that they reach them?