{"id":182282,"date":"2026-04-03T23:43:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182282\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T23:43:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:43:26","slug":"arrests-censorship-passport-annulments-among-rights-abuses-reported-on-april-1-3","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182282\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrests, censorship, passport annulments among rights abuses reported on April 1-3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>April 3, <em>Pozirk.<\/em> <\/strong>Over the last three days, rights defenders reported an arrest, sweeping censorship and other instances of political persecution in Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Prominent photographer Andrej Lankievi\u010d was detained at the Polish-Belarusian border, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported on April 3. Security officers reportedly discovered an \u201cextremist subscription\u201d on his smartphone and he might be charged with a minor offense, according to unconfirmed information.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Belarusian authorities added new entries to their lists of \u201cextremist organizations\u201d and \u201cextremists,\u201d with both databases expanding at a fast rate, updated almost daily. Two media outlets, <em>Novy \u010cas<\/em> and the <em>Belarusian Investigative Center<\/em>, and the Center for New Ideas think tank, have been added to extremist groups. The designation potentially carries a prison sentence of up to seven years for anyone associated with these organizations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Meanwhile, the police have added 20 people \u2013 in fact dissidents persecuted for their political views \u2013 to the list of extremists, taking the total to 6,468 entries. The new designees were prosecuted for alleged calls for sanctions, convicted of facilitating extremism, insulting the head of state and officials, inciting social hatred and mass disorder \u2013 a usual set of charges used in politically-motivated reprisals in Belarus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Belarus declared golosameriki.com, the website of the Russian service of Voice of America, which was closed down by US President Trump and has not been updated since March 15, 2025, \u201cextremist\u201d content. It also blacklisted the Instagram account of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the Threads account of LIBERECO \u2014 Partnership for Human Rights. Earlier this week it prohibited the BBC content for distribution in Belarus. BBC dismissed the \u201cextremist\u201d label as an attempt to criminalize independent journalism, in comments posted on March 31.\u00a0In addition, over the last three days, authorities banned dozens of social media accounts as extremist content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Belarus sentenced a jeweler who made items for opposition leader \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja to four years of \u201crestricted freedom\u201d in low security correctional facility on extremism charges, the Investigative Committee announced. Eight months ago, Belarusian authorities declared the popular jewelry brand Belaruskicry an extremist group.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The information ministry suspended for three months the distribution license of Technalohija, a Minsk-based publisher of Belarusian-language books that terminated operations earlier this year amid police crackdown. On February 17 and 18, 2026, police in Minsk raided apartments and offices linked to book publishers and distributors, arresting about 10 people.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Committee for State Security (KGB) added Dzianis Dzienisienka, a 27-year old resident of Pinsk convicted of rioting several months ago without being present at the trial, to is list of \u201cterrorists.\u201d Human rights defenders assumed that Dzienisienka was tried for his role in the postelection protests that took place in the city in August 2020. On April 3, the KGB added 11 individuals to its list of \u201cpersons involved in terrorist activity,\u201d among them five Belarusian volunteers of the Kastu\u015b Kalino\u016dski Regiment, the KGB said on Telegram.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Council of the Republic approved a proposal to introduce fines for promoting homosexuality, gender transition, voluntary childlessness and pedophilia, said the upper parliamentary chamber\u2019s press office.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Belarusian authorities annulled the passport of Nobel laureate and former designated political prisoner Ale\u015b Bialiacki and journalist Ihar Karniej.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As of April 3, human rights defenders identified at least 910 political prisoners, but the real number is considerably higher because of many undocumented cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 3, Pozirk. Over the last three days, rights defenders reported an arrest, sweeping censorship and other instances of political persecution in Belarus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":63993,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-182282","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Arrests, censorship, passport annulments among rights abuses reported on April 1-3 | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"April 3, Pozirk. 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