Marfa Rabkova
Coordinator of Volunteer Service, Viasna HRC
Detained: 17 September 2020
Charges: Part 1 Art. 293 - Organization of riots-;
Part 1 of Art. 13 to part 2 of Art. 293 - Preparation and deliberate creation of conditions for participation in riots;
Part 3 Art. 293 - Training persons for participation in mass riots, as well as financing or other material support of such activities;
Part 1 Art. 342 - Organization of group actions that grossly violate public order;
Part 3 Art. 361 - Appeals to actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus, committed using the mass media or the global computer network Internet;
Part 1 Art. 361-1 - Creation of an extremist formation);
Part 1 Art. 285 - Leading a criminal organization;
Part 3 Art. 130 - Incitement of social hostility or discord committed by a group of people;
Part 2 Art. 339 - Malicious hooliganism;
Part 3 art. 339 - Especially malicious hooliganism;
Art. 341 - Desecration of buildings and damage to property;
Part 3 Art. 218 - Intentional destruction or damage to other people’s property, committed by an organised group;
Part 2 Art. 295-3 - Illegal actions in relation to objects, the damaging effect of which is based on the use of flammable substances, committed by a group.
Status: Pre-trial, arrested
Marfa Rabkova is a human rights activist and coordinator of Viasna’s Volunteer Service. She was detained together with her husband Vadzim Zharomski on the evening of September 17 and taken to the Minsk office of GUBAZIK (Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption). Their apartment was searched, and equipment, personal money and belongings were confiscated.
Marfa Rabkova was told that she was being detained as part of a criminal case under Part 3 of Art. 293 of the Criminal Code (training or other preparation of persons to participate in riots, or funding such activities).
On September 19, she was transferred from a detention center to pre-trial prison No. 1 in Minsk. A number of international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a partnership of the World Organization Against Torture and FIDH), supported Marfa Rabkova and demanded her immediate release.
On February 11, Marfa Rabkova faced new criminal charges of “inciting social hostility to the government by a group of unidentified individuals” (Part 3 of Art. 130) and “involvement in a criminal organization” (Part 2 of Art. 285 of the Criminal Code).
On 28 November 2021, it became known from her letter that she is being charged with 11 articles of the Criminal Code.
If found guilty, Marfa Rabkova may be imprisoned for up to 15 years.