Political prisoner Mikhail Filipenko was detained in January 2026. The Minsk city court found him guilty under part 2 of article 361-3 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to five years in prison and a fine of 500 base units. The transfers behind the charge were not named.

He is 26. He was born on 25 May 2000 in Vitebsk. His full name is Mikhail Igorevich Filipenko. In 2021 he graduated from the Belarusian State Economic University. For more than a year and a half he worked as an economist at the Vitebsk sanatorium Zheleznodorozhnik. In spring 2023 he moved to the Minsk company Support Desk Technologies: he started as a shift supervisor and in less than two years was running the support department. That is what Nasha Niva writes. Viasna cites it.

A war charge, and no sums

On 19 January 2026 he was detained and placed in custody. Part 2 of article 361-3 covers a Belarusian citizen’s participation in, or preparation for, hostilities on the territory of another state without the state’s authorisation. On 3 June the Minsk city court gave him five years in a colony under an enhanced regime and a fine of 500 base units. That is 225,000 rubles. The reports do not name the judge.

Viasna says outright that it is not known which transfers were the basis of the charge. In the human rights defenders’ joint statement of 31 July the accusation is put differently: financing the participation of Belarusian citizens in the war in Ukraine. Nasha Niva adds that this article is often used for support of Belarusian volunteers. That is a description of the charge, not a list of his payments.

On 31 July 2026 he was recognised as a political prisoner, together with seven other people. On 4 September he was added to the list of people “involved in extremist activity.” He is serving the sentence in Mogilev colony No. 15. Before that, according to Viasna’s card, he was held in prison No. 8.