January 6, Pozirk. Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja has urged Minsk to liberate jailed human rights defenders Marfa Rabkova and Anastasija Łojka on the day that they turned 31 and 37, respectively.
“For Marfa, it is already her sixth birthday as a political prisoner. Both were jailed for defending the rights of others. They must be freed and reunited with their families,” the politician said on X.
Rabkova, who coordinated the volunteer service for the Viasna Human Rights Center, has been held behind bars since her arrest in September 2020. In 2022, she was given 15 years in prison on charges widely seen as politically motivated. Later, the Supreme Court reduced her sentence by three months.
Łojka is serving a seven-year prison term on charges of inciting hatred. The criminal case against her stemmed from the allegations that she was involved in drafting a report on the persecution of anarchist activists in 2018, human rights defenders said. Prosecutors interpreted the report’s critical statements about police as incitement of hatred.
Several prominent rights defenders were freed on December 13, including Nobel Peace Prize winner and Viasna’s founder Aleś Bialacki, after the meeting between Aleksandar Łukašenka and John Coale, US special envoy to Belarus.
