Vlogger Dzmitry Kazlou held in high-security correctional facility in Mazyr

Dzmit­ry Kazlou, a vlog­ger from Baran known to his fol­low­ers as “Sery Kot” (Grey Cat), is cur­rent­ly serv­ing an addi­tion­al one-year prison sen­tence in Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty No. 20, a high-secu­ri­ty prison in the Mazyr Dis­trict. The sen­tence was hand­ed for dis­obe­di­ence to prison admin­is­tra­tion.

Vlog­ger Dzmit­ry Kazlou (Sery Kot). Pho­to: RFL/RL Belarus

Fel­low for­mer inmates from Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty No. 20 say Kazlou remains com­posed, keeps to him­self most of the time, and spends much of his time read­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Bible.

He now smokes heav­i­ly, despite not hav­ing smoked at all pri­or to his impris­on­ment. He report­ed­ly respond­ed with com­po­sure to his lat­est sen­tence, imposed in the fall of 2024 for alleged dis­obe­di­ence at Babruisk Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty No. 2.

While he has been impris­oned in Mazyr, both of his YouTube chan­nels — Sery Kot and Sery Kot Streams, which earned him broad recog­ni­tion — were des­ig­nat­ed “extrem­ist” by the author­i­ties.

Kazlou has now spent more than five years behind bars. He was first detained on June 10, 2020, and held in pre­tri­al deten­tion for over a year. On May 25, 2021, the Mahil­iou Region­al Court found him and six oth­er Euro­pean Belarus activists guilty of prepa­ra­tion to par­tic­i­pate in mass riots.

Kazlou was orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for release from Babruisk Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty No. 2 on Novem­ber 28, 2024, after serv­ing four and a half years. How­ev­er, the very next day, on Novem­ber 29, he was tried again by the Babruisk City and Babruisk Dis­trict Court and giv­en an addi­tion­al one-year sen­tence. He now has approx­i­mate­ly four months left to serve.