Yana Pinchuk

Yana Vitalievna Pinchuk (Яна Вітальеўна Пінчук; born June 28, 1997, Vitebsk) is a Belarusian political activist. She is recognized as a political prisoner in Belarus by Memorial.

Biography
Yana Pinchuk was born on June 28, 1997, a citizen of the Republic of Belarus. Until 2018, she lived in Vitebsk, after which she moved to Russia. There, she lived in St. Petersburg, was not officially employed, and worked unofficially as a waitress.

Arrest and imprisonment
On November 1, 2021, she was detained by St. Petersburg police officers at the request of the “competent authorities of the Republic of Belarus” in connection with charges under Part 3 of Art. 130 (“Intentional actions aimed at inciting other social hostility and discord on the basis of a different social affiliation, committed by a group of persons”, up to 12 years in prison) and Part 1 of Art. 361.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (“Leading an extremist formation”, up to 7 years in prison). By a decision of the Vasileostrovsky District Court of St. Petersburg dated November 3, 2021, a preventive measure in the form of detention was chosen against Pinchuk, which was subsequently extended until April 30, 2022.

According to the investigative authorities of Belarus, Pinchuk, being the administrator of the Telegram channel “Vitebsk 97%”, through the Princess Leia account, “acted jointly and in concert by prior conspiracy in a group with other unidentified persons, while the intent of each covered the actions of another member of the group”, in the period from September 23, 2020, to December 7, 2020, “for the purpose of inciting other social hostility and discord based on a different social affiliation,” posted in this channel “text messages containing a negative assessment of a group of people united on the basis of their employee affiliation law enforcement agencies, public authorities and other groups of persons united by other social characteristics, as well as inducement in the form of a proposal to take actions aimed at causing harm to a group of persons united by belonging to the police.”

Pinchuk was also accused of posting text messages related to extremist materials on the same channel between September 23, 2020, and May 3, 2021 "for the purpose of carrying out extremist activities” and at the same time managing Vitebsk 97%, which was declared an extremist formation by a court decision in March 2021.

Pinchuk stated in court that she did not commit the crimes charged to her, and learned about the accusations against her only after her arrest.

On August 9, 2022, she was extradited from the Russian Federation to the Republic of Belarus due to the extradition ban of the UN Human Rights Committee.

In June 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced activist Yana Pinchuk to 12 years in prison.