Opposition leader condemns persecution of EHU students as transnational repression

June 13, Pozirk. Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja described the persecution and harassment of current and former students of Vilnius-based European Humanities University (EHU) by the Belarusian authorities as an act of transnational repression.
Alaksandar Łukašenka’s regime is targeting an educational institution inside the European Union, proving that “repression has no borders and no limits,” she said on X.
Earlier this month, rights defenders reported intensified raids targeting students, alumni and their family members in the case against EHU, which was blacklisted as an “extremist” organization in mid-April. Association with an extremist group in Belarus carries a penalty of two to seven years in prison.
Committee for State Security (KGB) agents have been harassing alumni who graduated between 2019 and 2025, demanding that they produce their degree certificates, the Viasna Human Rights Center said. Searches and interrogations also target current students and other people with alleged links to the university. The criminal investigation reportedly focuses on EHU tuition payments starting from 2016.
EHU was founded in Minsk in 1992 as a private school, but the Łukašenka government shut it down in 2004, forcing it to relocate to Lithuania.
Earlier this year, Dźmitryj Bryloŭ, a departmental chief at the Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus, claimed that the exiled university provides support to radical politicized groups and destructive foreign NGOs and is used by state security agencies to cause damage to Belarus.
According to its website, EHU receives support from the European Union, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the governments of the Netherlands and Iceland, and other donors.
Until recently, Belarusians accounted for about 74 percent of EHU’s student body.
Belarus opens criminal case over tuition fees paid to exiled university in Vilnius since 2016
- SecurityArmed Forces get new new chief of logisticsThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsExperts: Lukašenka’s departure likely to begin as managed handoverThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyAll poor workers should be sent to guard border with Ukraine, Łukašenka saysThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyUzbeks invited to Belarus to produce meat and milk for Uzbekistan, Łukašenka saysThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyBelarusian foreign minister visiting KyrgyzstanThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsGeorgian authorities not to take action against undocumented Belarusian rights defenderThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Economy, SocietyLithuanian border guards arrest two men carrying nearly 6,000 Belarusian-smuggled cigarettesThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyExports of Belarusian petroleum products to Georgia soaringThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Economy
- Politics, SocietyRights groups declare Radyjo Racyja’s sound engineer as political prisonerThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyBelarus ranks 11th in price growth among ex-Soviet states in H1The material is available only to POZIRK+
- Economy, SocietyBelarusians eat more meat, fewer fruits and berriesThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Economy, Society
- Economy, SocietyLithuania downs another drone with contraband Belarusian cigarettesThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsUpdate on politically-motivated trials, pressure on dissidentsThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics, SecurityBelarus upgrades Osa missile loaderThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsOpposition leader seeks continued cooperation with UK under PM BurnhamThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- SecurityLithuania reports spike in attempted irregular entries from BelarusThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyBelarusian delegation offers help with Uzbekistan’s nuclear projectThe material is available only to POZIRK+


