Dźmitryj HAŁAVAČ
A songwriter, singer and member of the popular Belarusian rock group Tor Band, Dźmitryj Hałavač was serving a nine-year prison sentence in a medium-security penal colony in Navapolack, northern Belarus at the end of the year. Hałavač was targeted on account of his songs, which became anthems of the mass protests that swept through Belarus in 2020.
Dźmitryj Hałavač was detained on 28 October 2022 alongside band members Jaŭhien Burło and Andrej Jaremčyk. They were sentenced to 15 days of administrative detention several times in a row, before being transferred to pre-trial detention in Homel, southeastern Belarus, in January 2023 after the Belarusian authorities labelled Tor Band ‘extremist’ and subsequently banned it. Already in August 2022, the authorities had deemed the band’s creative content to be ‘extremist’, although the musicians were only informed of the decision following their arrest. All three members of the group stood accused of ‘incitement to racial, national or religious hatred or discord’ under Article 130.3 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, ‘creation of an extremist group or participation in it’ (Article 361.1), ‘discrediting the Republic of Belarus (Article 369.1), and ‘insulting the President’ (Article 368) in relation to their songs. On 31 October 2023, a court in Homel found them guilty, and sentenced Hałavač to nine years in prison, Burło to eight years, and Jaremčyk to seven and half years. Their sentences were upheld in January 2024.
Born on 1 June 1982, Dźmitryj Hałavač formed Tor Band with Jaŭhien Burło and Andrej Jaremčyk in 2017. The group rose to prominence in 2020, when their songs became musical symbols of the mass protests that spread across Belarus following the fraudulent presidential election, generating millions of views on YouTube. Their song We Are Not a Little People notably states: ‘We are not cattle, nor a herd of cowards, / we are a living people, we are Belarusians! With faith in our hearts, we stand as one, / the banner of freedom above our heads!’.