Sergey Alexandrovich Sakovets is a 29-year-old chief power engineer who maintained an Instagram with 15,000 followers and wrote poetry. Sergei was first detained in October 2020 at the Pride March. That time it ended with a fine. However, on September 21, 2021, Sergey was detained again, right in the workplace. He was sentenced to 10 days and placed in Okrestin for subscribing to the extremist channel “Real Belarus”. On that day, after the detention, his apartment was searched. The law enforcers took away a laptop and a phone, which Sergei had bought on installment. After the search, he had to pay the money for 3 months in installments in a situation when the security forces had confiscated all his sources of income.
On the day Sergei was supposed to be released, a criminal case under Article 342 was opened against him. He spent another 10 days on Okrestin. On October 11, 2021 he was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1 on Volodarskogo, as the investigation was continuing. On October 11th , 2021 he was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1 in Volodar as the investigation was still in progress. He spent 2 thousand Belarusian rubles on his attorney. At the moment the trial has not yet taken place and it is not known how much finances will be needed to pay for the lawyer. The lawyer himself said nothing, as he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Sergei has been in the pre-trial detention facility for five months now. Since law enforcement officials took all of Sergei's money, his mother has to pay the loan on his car in the amount of 220 rubles, while her pension is 258 rubles. At the beginning, his mother managed to cope with all the payments, as she earned money over the summer from mushrooms and berries, but at the moment she is unable to pay the loan and the lawyer. In 5 months, Sergei wrote over 44 poems, read 40 books, learned English, and drew pictures for his cellmates, their wives and children.
Sergei writes in his letters that he is very worried about the money taken by the security forces. He writes that we can forget about it, no one will return it, and his mother has to pay the loan. Sergei and his mother cannot cope with the current situation and ask for help from everyone who cares.
How much is needed?
1100€ — loan repayment; lawyer's services; transfers to the detention center.