Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution

November 5, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on November 4.

Arrests

Law enforcers arrested the wife of designated political prisoner Arciom Aniščuk, Volha, in Minsk, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. No other details have been reported.

Security forces arrested Minsk resident Vasil Šałkievič for his participation in 2020 protests, pro-government Telegram channels reported.

Police arrested Uładzimir Šakun, whose persecution is believed to be politically motivated, in Kruhłaje, Mahiloŭ region, where he was serving a restricted freedom sentence at an open-type correctional facility, Viasna said.

New criminal cases

The interior ministry said that on November 2, a criminal case was opened against Vadzim Prakopjeŭ, assistant commander of the Belarusian Pahonia unit fighting in Ukraine. He is charged with organizing an extremist group. Similar charges were brought against other persons, including member of the opposition’s transition cabinet Valer Sachaščyk, it said.

Trials

A judge sentenced Brest resident Dźmitryj Łahodzič to three-and-a-half years in the high-profile Zielcer case, Viasna reported.

A judge in Viciebsk sentenced Alaksiej Hryharovič to a six-month suspended prison sentence for insulting a public officer, Viasna reported. Remarkably, he was involved in suppressing protests in 2020 with interior troops, reports said.

Last October, a district court in Minsk sentenced local residents Zachar Tarazievič and Alaksiej Vołkaŭ to seven-and-a-half and 10 years in prison for setting fire to the car of the State Committee for Forensic Examinations’ chairman, Viasna reported.

Last month, the Brest region’s Baranavičy City and District Court passed an unusually short sentence in a politically motivated case, Viasna reported. It sentenced local resident Jaŭhien Šajbak to one month in jail for desecrating buildings and damaging property.

A judge decided to toughen the punishment for inciting hatred on Hrodna resident Śviatasłaŭ Lepiešaŭ, Viasna reported. He is waiting to be transferred from an open-type correctional facility to a penal colony. The term is unknown. Human rights activists say his health is deteriorating and he can become blind.

In Minsk, husband and wife Dźmitryj Sadavy and Hanna Arechava were sentenced to two years of restricted freedom without referral to an open-type correctional facility for participating in protests in 2020, Viasna reported.