Odesa political prisoner released from Belarusian colony mobilized in Ukraine

Oleksandr Kotovych, a resident of Odesa, who spent more than two years in a Belarusian colony for critical comments about the Belarusian authorities, was mobilized after his release.

This was reported by the Hromadske media outlet.

The man said that he was mobilized on February 19. By this time, he had not managed to obtain the status of a victim of political persecution by the aggressor country, which entitles him to medical rehabilitation and an official deferment from military service. Oleksandr Kotovych explained that he did not have time to apply. His lawyer is currently working on his case.

Earlier, Kotovych told Radio Liberty that he hardly ever goes out, does not visit coffee shops and does not take a taxi. He only goes out to the store, post office and to get food, and he solved his paperwork issues online. Oleksandr was wanted in Ukraine: he was sent a summons to the military commissariat, but he did not appear because he was imprisoned in Belarus at the time.

Oleksandr Kotovych moved to live with his Belarusian wife in the fall of 2019. He worked there as a programmer and did not participate in the 2020 protests, saying that his wife asked him not to because they could put him in jail. But when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, he wrote comments on social media in support of his homeland and condemning Russia's aggression.

Kotovich was detained in August 2023. A Belarusian court sentenced him to 5 years in prison for 40 comments that allegedly incited social hatred, as well as for insulting and defaming Lukashenka. Since then, he has been serving his sentence in Shklovy Vary colony #17.

The man admitted that he did not plan to go to war in 2022. At the time, he was considering leaving Belarus, for example, for Poland or Lithuania, but stayed with his family in Belarus.

Кирило Бойко