64-year-old motorsport vice-champion jailed for politics. Arrested after returning from abroad
Yury Ochkas dedicated his whole life to extremes and the sea: from car racing and yachting on Minsk Sea to cruises around Europe. But recently, the 64-year-old captain was convicted under a criminal article and sent behind bars.
Yury Ochkas was born in 1961. In 1983, he graduated from the Faculty of Automotive Engineering at BNTU.
In the 1990s, he was the vice-champion of Belarus in autocross and worked as a coach for a long time. Later, he became passionate about the sea and switched to windsurfing and yachting.
In 2013, Ochkas bought an old yacht in Poland, restored it with his own hands, and named it "Fortuna." Since then, he began offering leisure services on the Minsk Sea, striving to create a quality and beautiful service on the water in Belarus, although he admitted that a full-fledged business couldn't be made of it in our latitudes. His brand was called yachts.by.
Yury traveled a lot. His social media is full of photos from marinas and yacht clubs around the world: Greece, Turkey, Spain, the Canary Islands, and the Netherlands. Due to sanctions and document complications, he sometimes had to resort to tricks — for example, registering his boat under the flag of the exotic country of Palau to be able to freely go out to sea. He also taught yachting in Poland.
Yury holds pro-Ukrainian views. "I believe everything will be Ukraine!" he wrote in one of his Facebook posts.
Yury's last social media post is dated August 30, 2025 – then he published a post from the Masurian Lakes in Poland. Most likely, he was detained shortly after returning to Belarus.
He was tried in the Minsk City Court under Part 1 of Art. 130 of the Criminal Code (incitement of hatred). Most likely, this is related to his pro-Ukrainian posts on social networks.
Yury was sentenced to a penal colony.
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