{"id":91946,"date":"2024-06-21T11:33:17","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T08:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/91946\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"reprisals-political-prisoners-list-keeps-growing","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/91946\/","title":{"rendered":"Reprisals: politician sentenced to 20 years, political prisoner list gets longer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 21, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> New instances of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on June 20 as \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja\u2019s chief aide Franak Via\u010dorka was tried in absentia and given 20 years in prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities accused the exiled politician of conspiracy to overthrow the government, high treason and other crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrests<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police arrested a university lecturer in Minsk on his 32nd birthday for allegedly sharing a riot policeman’s data with an opposition online project, a pro-government source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro-government sources also reported the arrest of Daniel-\u0141andsiej Kejta, a singer in the Orthodox men’s choir. In a police video, he admitted to participating in 2020 postelection protests and criticizing the government and police online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dzianis Ku\u017ami\u010d is under arrest in Lepiel, Viciebsk region, on suspicion of calling for protests, the Vicebsk branch of the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alena Bahdanava was arrested in Babrujsk, Mahilo\u016d region, for sharing opposition content on TikTok, Mediazona.Belarus<\/em> said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criminal proceedings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 30, a judge in Mahilo\u016d sentenced ceramic artist Alena Karpienka to 18 months in prison on charges of defaming the head of state in connection with social media posts critical of Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka, Viasna reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Extremist” list update<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities branded the moladz.help<\/em> project and its accounts on Instagram and Telegram as extremist content. Other blacklisted content includes several opposition Telegram channels and TikTok accounts, Orsha.eu <\/em>social media pages and Narodniy Reporter <\/em>on Odnoklassniki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other cases<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 19, the Viciebsk Regional Court shut down the U\u0142jana women’s public association, the Viciebsk branch of Viasna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarusian human rights groups declared 17 more people political prisoners. Most of them were convicted of violent disorder in connection with protests that followed the disputed presidential election of 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of June 21, human rights defenders identified at least 1,427 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented. Opposition sources estimate the number of political prisoners at around 5,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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