December 29, Pozirk. At least 1,254 people have been convicted in politically-motivated criminal cases in Belarus this year, including 355 women and 45 seniors, the Viasna Human Rights Center reports.
Belarusian judges also passed guilty verdicts against 30 exiles without their presence at the trials.
The most common punishment in politically-motivated criminal cases is restriction of freedom in home confinement, Viasna said, citing 555 such sentences. Rights defenders also know of 42 people given restricted freedom in open-type correctional facilities and 306 who were sentenced to prison terms.
More than 640 people have been found guilty on protest-related charges this year, with defamation charges ranking as the second most frequent accusation.
At least 274 people were convicted for allegedly facilitating extremist activities and other extremism-related offenses that Belarusian authorities routinely use to persecute political opponents.
Viasna has confirmed 127 arrests and 78 verdicts over links to the now-defunct Biełaruski Hajun online initiative that monitored Russian military activities in Belarus since 2022. However, the total number of detainees in the case is significantly higher, as arrests and trials are still taking place across Belarus.
Reprisals and crackdown on dissidents continue unabated since the 2020 postelection protests in Belarus.
As of December 29, human rights defenders identified at least 1,131 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented.
