Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution

October 26, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on October 25.

Arrests and releases

Authorities accused arrested businessman Bahdan Karaviec, founder of Astronim, a website development company, of participating in 2020 protests, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.

Dzianis Hucin, whom human rights defenders considered a political prisoner, was released after having served two and a half years in prison for online comments, dissidentby reported.

Authorities also released Stanisłaŭ Paŭlinkovič, sentenced to three years of restricted freedom in an open-type correctional facility for insulting a judge, MAYDAY.TEAM reported. Human rights defenders also considered him a political prisoner. Paŭlinkovič’s prison term was reduced by one year under a clemency program. However, in May 2022, his detention conditions worsened as authorities transferred him to prison. A few months later he spent over 20 days in a punishment cell.

Trials

A court sentenced Minsk resident Miłana Valfovič to two and a half years of restricted freedom in home confinement for participating in protests, Viasna said. Police identified her by photos found in her smartphone.

Alaksandr Cialeha will go on trial again for comments about public officials and policemen. In January, he had been sentenced to four years in prison on these charges. Human rights groups declared him a political prisoner.

Content blacklisted as “extremist”

Authorities blacklisted the Belarusian translation of A Ballad About a Small Tugboat, a 1962 poem by famous Soviet dissident poet Joseph Brodsky, BPN reported. Its publisher Andrej Januškievič recalled that during a search of his bookstore police had not liked the dark orange and white colors of the tugboat on the book cover by association with protest red-and-white colors.

Authorities also blacklisted the Instagram account Belarus na Tele (Belarus on the Body) by Poland-based Belarusian journalist Jaŭhienija Doŭhaja. She has been posting pictures of protests tattoos on this page.

The Belarusian Free Choir’s YouTube channel and the first part of an illustrated history of Belarus by Uładzimir Arłoŭ are also among the blacklisted content.

As of October 26, human rights defenders identified at least 1,344 political prisoners.