A court in Vinnytsia, a city 270 kilometers southwest from Kyiv, sentenced local activist Yuriy Pavlenko to 4.5 years in prison for hooliganism with a use of a weapon. Pavlenko denies the charges, saying that he is being punished for publicly tearing up the portrait of Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko during a protest action.He called the sentence “a political order,” according to reports in the local media in Vinnytsia.

Pavlenko was arrested on Dec. 8, 2014, after he participated in a two-day-long protest action near the building of Vinnytsia Oblast State Administration.