Mikola Dziadok

Mikola Dziadok is a Belarusian journalist, anarchist activist, blogger, and political prisoner.

Mikola Dziadok was born on August 23, 1988, in Brahin.

He graduated from the BSU College of Law.

After graduating from college, he was enrolled in the 3rd year of the Faculty of Law of BSU, but didn't study there.

He left BSU, entered the European Humanities University at the political science department (he studied in absentia; at the time of his arrest he was a 2nd year student).

He worked in a collection firm, where he acted as a journalist, lawyer and programmer at the same time.

He also became a member of the Belarusian anarchist movement.

Mikola Dziadok was detained on September 3, 2010, as a suspect in the case of the attack on the Russian Embassy in Minsk on the night of August 31.

The law enforcement bodies of Belarus arrested the young man for three days and placed him in a temporary detention center.

Failing to collect a sufficient amount of evidence that would confirm Mikola's involvement in the case, law enforcement agencies extended the term of his detention, but in a different case – an attack on the House of Trade Unions.

However, when the accusation of his participation again did not receive sufficient evidence, Mikola was detained for the third time as a suspect in the case of an attack on a Belarusbank branch.

After that, when all possibilities for detention were exhausted, they began to ascribe other illegal actions to Mikola, in particular, theft and hooliganism.

On September 24, 2010, having already served more than 20 days under arrest, Mikola Dziadok was accused of participating in an unauthorized rally near the General Staff of Belarus, and on October 1 he was charged under Article 339, part 2 – "hooliganism."

In May 2011, Dziadok was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison in a maximum security colony for participating in attacks on government buildings.

On May 27, 2011, the Zavodskoy Court of Minsk sentenced Dedok to 4 1⁄2 years in a high security prison.

Mikola was held in the so-called "anarchist case" together with Igor Olinevich (sentenced to 8 years) and Alexander Frantskevich (sentenced to 3 years).

At the trial, Dedok did not admit his guilt and later in prison refused to sign a petition for pardon addressed to the president.

While imprisoned, on September 13, 2011, Mikola Dziadok married Valeria Khotina in the Mogilev colony.

In October 2011, the Viasna Human Rights Centre and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee recognized those convicted in the "anarchist case", including Mikola Dziadok, as political prisoners.

Dziadok was taken under the patronage of Sari Essayah, member of the European Parliament from Finland, in November 2011.

In prisons No. 15 and 17 of Shklov, Mikola received more than 10 penalties for various far-fetched violations.

By a court decision on December 5, 2012, the conditions of serving the sentence were changed to stricter ones – he was transferred from prison No. 17 in Shklov to prison No. 4 in Mogilev.

In November 2014, a new criminal case was opened against Dedok under Article 411 for "willful disobedience to the requirements of the administration of the correctional institution".

He was released in 2015 and became in involved in the 2020 Belarusian protests.

He was arrested by authorities and is currently again a political prisoner.

On November 10, 2021, Dziadok was sentenced to five years in a general-security penal colony and is held in Prison Number 8.

In February 2015, Dedok was sentenced to an additional year in prison under Article 411 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.

After his release, he continued his social and political activities, took up journalism and research in the field of political science.

Before his arrest, Dedok, according to himself, was an activist unknown to the general public.

His name appeared in the media for the first time only in connection with his arrest.

Five days before the end of his term on February 26, 2015, the Leninsky District Court of Mogilev sentenced Mikola Dziadok to 1 year in a strict regime prison, under Article 411 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus for "malignant disobedience to the demands of the administration".

Grandpa was charged with 16 violations of the regime in places of detention.

For each of these 16 violations, Mikola had already been punished in a disciplinary order, having received a reprimand of from 5 to 10 days in a punishment cell.

After the conviction, he wrote an open letter to the press, in which he criticized Art.

411 of the Criminal Code as inhumane and repressive.

On May 12, 2015, Mikola was transferred to prison IK-9 in Gorki, where out of the first 50 days of his stay, he spent 42 days in a punishment cell "for violation of the sentence serving regime" and "refusal to work".

To draw attention to the unbearable conditions of detention, on May 20, 2015, Dedok was forced to inflict cut wounds on his stomach and arms.

On June 24, 2015, Manuel Sarrazin, Member of the German Bundestag and representative of the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group in the European Parliament, took over the "patronage" of the political prisoner Mikola Dziadok.

On August 22, 2015, Alexander Lukashenko pardoned six political prisoners – Mikola Dziadok, Igor Olinevich, Nikolai Statkevich, Yevgeny Vaskovich, Artem Prokopenko and Yuri Rubtsov.

The report notes that the decision to pardon was made in accordance with the "principle of humanism".