An IT specialist traveled from Łódź to Belarus for the holidays and ended up in prison. What is known about him

Uladzislau Marchyk is 27 years old. In 2020, he graduated from the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (BSUIR).

Marchyk is a programmer, he was a fullstack developer, wrote in C# and Angular, and worked with the .NET platform. In recent years, the IT specialist lived in Poland, in Łódź.

Uladzislau was interested in video games (Dota 2, Sekiro, The Witcher) and history.

At the end of 2025, Uladzislau went to his homeland. It is likely that during this trip for the New Year holidays, or shortly after it, the IT specialist was arrested.

Recently, Uladzislau was tried. On September 4, 2026, the verdict of the Minsk City Court came into legal force. Marchyk was found guilty under Part 1, Article 130 (inciting other social hatred) and Part 1, Article 368 (insulting Lukashenka) of the Criminal Code.

Details of the case are unknown. The young man was sentenced to restricted freedom with referral (a type of sentence often involving forced labor or residence at a specified location).

Human rights activists have repeatedly warned that security forces are tracking Belarusians returning from abroad. People are checked and thrown behind bars for old comments, assistance to the repressed, or donations, fabricating criminal cases against them for "inciting hatred" or "facilitating extremist activity."

Mass political repressions in the country began after 2020. At that time, Alexander Lukashenka lost to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya but did not relinquish power to her, forcing her to leave the country. Mass popular protests against the dictatorship and election fraud took place. The authorities responded with repressions.

According to calculations by the 'Belpol' security forces association and human rights defenders, the names of at least 10,050 people who have been subjected to politically motivated criminal cases are known. In total, various political repressions (criminal cases, administrative arrests, dismissals, searches, forced emigration) have affected hundreds of thousands of Belarusians.

The Belarusian authorities consider "extremism" to be the demand for free elections with transparent vote counting, as well as virtually any criticism of the authorities, pro-Russian historical narratives, expressions of solidarity with Ukraine, and anti-war speeches.

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