Evgeny Rubashko was born July 9, 1989, in Glubokoe, he studied in the Institute of Informational Technologies and worked as a software developer with rare programming languages.

He lived in Amsterdam for almost two years before the events of summer 2020 when he decided to come back to Belarus because he couldn’t stay away during the protests. Likes music.

Political views

Evgeny is an anarchist. He was a member of Food Not Bombs Minsk and FreeMarket initiatives and others.

Detention and conviction

Evgeny was detained in the early hours of 29 July 2021 at home. During his detention, he was tortured, including putting a bag over his head, pouring liquid (presumably vodka) into his mouth, and being beaten. His home was searched, after which he was taken to KGB, where the torture continued.

He was initially accused of actively participating in protests in the autumn of 2020 (he was detained on 15 November 2020 and sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest, after describing the experience in an article).

In January 2022 it became known that Evgeny and the other defendants in the criminal case were additionally charged under Part 3 Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code – participation in an extremist formation for subscribing to the Pramen Telegram channel. It is known that at the time of Rubashko’s detention, Pramen was not included in the list of extremist formations, this only happened in November 2021.

Sentence

The hearing of the criminal case began on 29 March 2022, 20 minutes after the start of the session, the court was made closed on the prosecutor’s motion. Evgeny Rubashko is known to have pleaded not guilty to any of the charges and delivered a powerful final statement, which he later delivered to the court.

The sentence was handed down on 22 April 2022: Zhenya Rubashko was sentenced on two counts to five years’ imprisonment in a penal colony. In March 2023 he was tried again and sentenced to harsher prison conditions. He soon will be transferred to high–security prison.

Prison conditions

He was held in pre-trial prison No. 1, then in prison No. 4, and was transferred to penal colony No. 2 to serve his sentence.

During his time in pre-trial detention centre he was active in correspondence, wrote more than 50 poems. After his transfer to the penal colony his letters reach only his family and relatives.

It is known that in the conditions of the colony he works “on rubber” (he pulls the metal cord out of rubber car tyres), does physical exercises, reads a lot of books, including technical ones.

Zhenya is under pressure from the colony administration: he has been deprived of extended visits from his relatives and has been placed in a punishment cell several times.

Friends and comrades launched a solidarity campaign in support of Evgeny Rubashko, Alexander Belov, and Artsiom Solovey #FreedomIsARight, follow it on Instagram and Twitter.

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