They promised Mahiliou resident Aliaksandr Kulikou: come back, and the punishment will not involve imprisonment. He came back. Contact broke off at the border. The Leninski district court gave him three years in a colony. By March 2024 the outcome was different: six years.
Aliaksandr Uladzimiravich Kulikou was born on 16 March 1970. From 2002 he worked as head of security at the Liga disco in Mahiliou, Zerkalo reported. The Viasna Human Rights Centre recognised him as a political prisoner on 29 August 2023. His file is on Dissidentby.
Chat comments, and a promise of no prison
The criminal case grew out of his comments in a chat that the security services labelled extremist material in May 2021. The charges were insulting dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka (Art. 368, part 2) and defaming him (Art. 367, part 2). That is how Viasna and Nasha Niva describe the case.
Before he left, on 6 April 2023, officers had already drawn up an administrative report under Art. 19.11 of the administrative code — extremist materials — and he was given a short jail term. In May 2023, with the criminal case already open, he went to Poland and stayed about a month. Then his elderly mother called: an investigator had phoned her and threatened to put her son on a wanted list. They also promised that if he returned, the penalty would not involve imprisonment. That is how acquaintances abroad described it; Viasna published the account citing MAYDAY.TEAM. Nasha Niva carried the same account.
He returned. He stopped answering while crossing the border. Officers drew up another report under Art. 19.11. Viasna and Nasha Niva say he was detained immediately after the return and placed in a pre-trial jail. Zerkalo, citing Viasna’s prisoner file, gives the day he came back: 1 June 2023.
Three years instead of the promised freedom
On 13 July 2023 the Leninski District Court of Mahiliou — judge Natallia Panasenka — found Kulikou guilty and sentenced him to three years in a general-regime colony. Viasna and Nasha Niva reported the sentence.
On 20 October 2023 the Interior Ministry added him to its “list of extremists.” The date is on Viasna’s prisoner file.
A second trial: no longer about comments
On 6 December 2023 the Mahiliou Regional Court opened a new trial behind closed doors. Viasna listed the charges as:
participation in an extremist formation (Art. 361-1, part 3); participation on the territory of a foreign state in an armed formation or armed conflict (Art. 361-3, part 1); undergoing training or other preparation for extremist activity (Art. 361-5).
On 12 December state television aired a propaganda piece. On camera Kulikou speaks about trying to join the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment, about training near Kyiv, and about the call sign “Lennox,” after the boxer Lennox Lewis. Zerkalo writes that the filming was done in a cell, apparently at Prison No. 4 in Mahiliou, while the case was still in court. Words spoken in custody in front of a state-TV camera are the propaganda version, not an established fact. Viasna also recounted the broadcast.
On 20 December judge Dzianis Kichyhin imposed four years on this case. The regional court’s press service reported it on 22 December. Combined in part with the earlier three years, the aggregate sentence was four and a half years in a general-regime colony. Viasna and Zerkalo set out how the terms were added. Four years and four and a half are not two rival verdicts. Four is the term on the new case. Four and a half is the total after the sentences were partly added together.
The prosecutor decided even that was too little
The prosecutor appealed the four-and-a-half-year sentence as too lenient. The criminal chamber of the Supreme Court upheld the demand. On 22 March 2024 Viasna reported that another year and a half had been added. The final punishment is six years in prison. Zerkalo reported the same figure, citing the Prosecutor General’s press service. Dissidentby records it as an enhanced-regime colony.
On 1 July 2024 a court changed the regime: Kulikou was moved to a prison regime. Dissidentby lists three years of prison regime and the address of Prison No. 8 in Zhodzina.
He is not on the pardon lists
His name does not appear in the published lists of people freed in the 2025–2026 talks, including the 25 released on 16 September 2026. Dissidentby’s file still lists him as a political prisoner.