Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution

May 17, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on May 16 as authorities harassed ordinary Belarusians and imprisoned activists.

Arrests

Police arrested at least a dozen people in Hrodna but did not disclose their names and charges against them, MAYDAY TEAM reported. Human rights defenders link the arrests to subscriptions to opposition media.

Reportedly, one of the arrested is Ludmiła Sakovič, a department head at the local Priorbank branch, the Viasna Human Rights Center said. Authorities accuse her of sharing opposition content, donating money to the BySol solidarity fund and signing up for the opposition Pieramoha Plan.

Barber Pavieł Špakoŭski was arrested in Horki, Mahiloŭ region, for allegedly participating in protests and insulting police officers and Alaksandr Łukašenka, Naša Niva reported. The date of his arrest and the exact charges against him remain unclear.

Criminal proceedings

The Minsk City Court sentenced former police special forces officer Jan Papkovič to four years in prison for participating in protests and intentions to participate in armed conflict in a foreign country, Viasna said.

On April 5, a district court in Minsk sentenced Juryj Mašok and his daughter Valeryja to two years of restricted freedom in home confinement in connection with protests.

Trials

The Čašniki District Court in the Viciebsk region fined a local woman 1,850 rubels (over $630) for a picture of a white-red-white cake that she posted online, Mediazona reported. The judge found her guilty of participating in an unauthorized mass event.

A court in the Valožyn district, Minsk region, acquitted a local resident who had shot a TikTok video featuring Žyvie Belarus (Long Live Belarus) slogan. The man pleaded not guilty at the hearing on April 28 saying that he used the slogan to denigrate the opposition.

Other instances of persecution

The jailed leader of the Belarusian Popular Front, Ryhor Kastusioŭ, was hospitalized on April 27 and was still in hospital on May 11, his son-in-law Dźmitryj Antončyk wrote on Facebook. His family says he is battling cancer. Authorities sentenced Kastusioŭ, 66, to 10 years in prison in a high-profile coup d’état case.

Prominent opposition politician Mikałaj Statkievič currently serving a lengthy prison term was isolated from other inmates and deprived of visits and parcels for six months, his wife Maryna Adamovič wrote on Facebook. She did not have any information about her husband for 95 days and does not receive letters from him.

Prison authorities placed jailed opposition activist Palina Šarenda-Panasiuk in a punishment cell, her husband Andrej Šarenda said on Facebook. She is currently serving a three-year prison term on charges widely seen as politically motivated. In the past 11 months, she was punished 20 times and spent a total of 200 days in a punishment cell.

The whereabouts and condition of jailed former presidential hopeful Viktar Babaryka remain unknown since April 28, his team’s Telegram channel says. Neither the interior ministry’s correctional facilities nor prison hospitals confirmed his presence.

As of May 4, human rights defenders identified at least 1,480 political prisoners.