Belarus court restricts liberty of Grodno man, 59, over a found cannabis jar
A Grodno court convicted a 59-year-old man of illegally acquiring and storing marijuana without intent to sell after he found a jar of it near the railway station in June, took it home and used part of it. He was sentenced to two years' restriction of liberty without being sent to an open-type correctional institution, and the verdict could still be appealed.
🇧🇾 Grodno · Belarus
- Charged
- 1
The Leninsky District Court in Grodno sentenced a 59-year-old city resident in a
drug case, the television channel Grodno Plus reported on 30 October 2026.[1]
The court found him guilty of illegally acquiring and storing narcotic drugs
without intent to sell under Part 1 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code of
Belarus.[1] It sentenced him to two years’ restriction of liberty without
sending him to an open-type correctional institution.[1]
According to the case file, in June he found a jar of plant material while
walking near the railway station in Grodno.[1] He recognised it as marijuana
by its smell but, instead of reporting the find to the police, took the jar home
and used part of what was inside.[1]
Senior assistant prosecutor for the city of Grodno Yulia Shcherbina said the
court convicted him on the evidence presented by the state prosecutor.[1] The
verdict had not yet entered into force and could be appealed under the procedure
set by law.[1]
Sources
- В Гродно мужчину осудили за найденную банку с марихуаной. Гродно Плюс, 30 October 2026. In Russian.
Open questions the AI reported
- The article gives no separate date for the verdict; 30 October 2026 is its publication date.
- No weight was given for the marijuana in the jar, and no fine or estimated value was reported.
- The defendant was not named, and the report does not say whether he had an earlier conviction.
- Restriction of liberty is a non-custodial sentence in Belarus, so no prison term is recorded in the figures.
- No second account of the case was found; the record rests on the Grodno Plus television report.
- The article's lead photograph could not be confirmed to show the court or the case, so only the television report is linked.
