The Second Court of Appeal in St. Petersburg upheld the decision to deport 24-year-old Belarusian Yana Pinchuk, who is accused in Belarus of administering “extremist” Telegram channels.

According to the girl's relatives, she was seriously ill for the last month, but she was denied medical assistance, writes Sota.

A Russian court ruled to extradite Pinchuk to Belarus in June. She lived in the Russian Federation for four years, until her arrest. Pinchuk spent the last months in a pre-trial detention center.

In Belarus, Yana Pinchuk is accused under Part 3 of Art. 130 (deliberate actions aimed at inciting other social enmity and discord on the basis of a different social affiliation, committed by a group of persons) and Part 1 of Art. 361.1 (leadership of an extremist formation) of the Criminal Code. They provide for 12 and 7 years in prison, respectively.

According to investigators, Pinchuk was the administrator of the protest Telegram channels, which the Belarusian authorities recognized as extremist. According to the Investigative Committee of Belarus, the girl “collected personal information of people, published messages that contained calls for the seizure of state power, a violent change in the constitutional order,” and also posted “deliberately false” messages about the security forces, thereby “inciting social enmity.” These messages were published in the fall of 2020 during the mass protests in Belarus that began after the presidential elections.

According to Pinchuk herself, she posted on Telegram only reposts with information about the time and place of the rallies, as well as about helping the detainees.