Authorities add 68 names to extremist register

May 26, BPN. On May 19 and 26, Belarusian authorities added a total of 68 names to the register of people they say are involved in extremism, taking their total to 2,868.

Additions include Sciapan Jakuć and Kirył Hranoŭski, currently serving restricted freedom sentences in home confinement for participating in protests and online comments.

Jailed Viktar Savaševič, sentenced to 11 years in prison for allegedly creating and running a Telegram channel with the personal data of judges, is also on the extremist list. On April 20, the Committee for State Security (KGB) blacklisted him as a “person involved in terrorist activities.”

On May 26, authorities have blacklisted jailed human rights defenders Marfa Rabkova and Andrej Čapiuk currently serving lengthy prison terms on charges widely seen as politically motivated.

Jailed anarchist activists Alaksandr Franckievič, Akichira Hajeŭski-Chanada, Alaksiej Hałaŭko, Alaksandr Kaźlanka, Pavieł Špietny, Mikita Draniec, Andrej Marač and Daniła Čul are also on the updated extremist register.

Other additions include former bank employees Ina Hlinskaja and her daughter Valeryja Hlinskaja, imprisoned for sharing security officials’ personal data with an opposition Telegram channel. Both were blacklisted as terrorists along with the jailed anarchists.

Alleged administrators of Chernaya Kniga Belarusi (the Black Book of Belarus), Janina Sazanovič, Daniił Bahdanovič, Dźmitryj Navoša, Volha Vysockaja, Valeryja Zaniamonskaja along with former policeman Stanisłaŭ Łupanosaŭ are also on the list. All are currently based abroad and have been persecuted or convicted in absentia of various crimes ranging from inciting hatred to high treason.