Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution

April 21, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on April 20.

Arrests

Police arrested Daniił Archanhielski, Karyna Marčuk and another person (name not disclosed) in the Brest region for sharing opposition social media posts, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.

A resident of Viciebsk is under arrest for Telegram posts with instructions to prepare Molotov cocktails and resisting police during protests.

Minsk police arrested Daniił Karankievič. He admitted under duress to participating in 2020 protests, signing up for the opposition Pieramoha plan and contacting a police-administered chatbot that he thought was run by the opposition.

Police arrested Minsk soccer fan Pavieł Viniel and forced him to admit to participating in protests, supporting far-right views, making offensive comments, and keeping a portrait of Hitler.

New criminal cases

Authorities filed criminal charges against businesswoman Viktoryja Haŭrylina, wife of Dźmitryj Haŭrylin, head of the Homiel engine repair plant and frontman of the Ban-Žvirba band. Both were arrested in late January. Dźmitryj was released after he had served 30 days in jail for sharing opposition content, while Vikroryja faces charges of tax evasion, subscribing to opposition content, financing extremist activities and leaking police officers’ personal data.

Criminal proceedings

Former police special forces officer Jan Papkovič will go on trial in Minsk on May 10. He is accused of participating in protests and intentions to fight Russia in Ukraine. Police arrested him in early September 2022, one day before his planned departure for Poland.

Extremist list updates

The Committee for Ste Security (KGB) blacklisted Viktar Savaševič as a person “involved in terrorist activities,” BPN reported. He is currently serving an 11-year prison term for allegedly running a Telegram channel sharing the personal data of judges involved in politically-motivated persecution in Belarus. Human rights groups consider him a political prisoner.

Other instances of persecution

The information ministry blocked access to audiobooks.by containing links to more than 500 books from various sources, Naša Niva reported.

As of April 21, human rights defenders identified at least 1,489 political prisoners.