Paval Sieviaryniets

Pavel Sieviaryniets (Belarusian: Павeл Севярынец, born December 30, 1976) is a Belarusian Journalist and Christian democratic politician and youth leader and one of the founders of the Young Front.

Paval Sieviaryniets was born in Orsha, Vitsebsk Voblast into a family of local intellectuals. In 2000 he graduated from the Geography faculty of the Belarusian State University.

From 1994 till 1999 he worked as journalist for several state and commercial newspapers. Since 1998 Paval Sieviaryniets became known for his essays and publicistic works.

In 1995 Paval Sieviaryniets joined the Belarusian Popular Front. In February 1997 he became leader of the Minsk youth fraction of the organization. In September 1997 г. he became one of the foundes of Young Front, that was on its way to become an independent organization.

In 1997-2004 Sieviaryniets became known as leader of mass protests against the president Lukashenko.

During his activity in Young Front Paval Sieviaryniets initiated many educational projects as well as projects promoting Belarusian language, democratic values and the idea of European integration of Belarus.

In 1999-2003 Paval Sieviaryniets was vice-chairman of BPF Party, In 1999-2004 he was also chairman of Young Front.

On 1 June 2005, he was sentenced to three years of correctional labor after protesting the controversial referendum amending Belarus's constitution to allow President Alexander Lukashenko a third term in office. The U.S. protested the sentence, calling it a "parody of justice", and the European Union stated that "even by the standards of Belarus, this is an excessive penalty". A later amnesty reduced his sentence to one year. He spent 2 years on lumber sites in a village in northern Belarus and was set free in 2007 following an amnesty.

Sevyarynets faced a new series of charges in 2007. In May, he was released from a prison sentence for "organizing an unsanctioned rally". In July, a court found him and fellow activist Aleksey Shein guilty of "distributing illegal literature" after they were found leaflets for a political meeting. On 19 August, Sevyarynets was arrested with other youth activists during a Brest book reading at which he discussed his three books. The group were detained for "participating in an unsanctioned meeting" and were also accused of possessing counterfeit money and Ukrainian liquor.

Sevyarynets later became a co-leader of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party. In December 2010, he was arrested again on charges related to protests against Lukashenko's disputed re-election. On 16 May 2011, he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience. He was released from prison on 19 October 2013.

Currently Paval Sieviaryniets is working on re-foundation of the Belarusian Christian-democratic party and is co-chairman of its organizational committee.

He has been very vocal against adaption of LGBT acceptance in Belarus. On June 4, 2016, Sieviaryniets gave an interview to Radio Free Europe stating that homosexuality as a social norm will destroy the Belarusian nation, the very idea of gender is just as dangerous as racist propaganda or provoking class warfare and that gay Belarusians dishonor the memory of those died fighting against the USSR and Nazi Germany.