Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution

July 11, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on July 10.

Arrests

A judge in Mahiloŭ sentenced a local journalist for liking and subscribing to undesirable content, mogilev.media reported. Źmicier Lapiejka had cooperated with a local council newspaper before becoming a freelancer in the summer of 2020. He also cooperated with the NGO Center of Urban Initiatives as a moderator of discussions in Mahiloŭ.

Trials

The Hrodna Regional Court began hearing a case against Pavał Mažejka, a prominent journalist and head of the outlawed local Center of Urban Life, and Julija Jurhilevič, a disbarred lawyer, Viasna reported. Both were arrested in 2022 and charged with extremism. Hrodna’s prosecutors had persuaded a judge to shut down the NGO Mažejka headed in May 2022.

A district court in Minsk is to hear a case against musician Mikita Najdzionaŭ on July 19, Viasna reported. Law enforcers arrested the former front man of the band Churma and a songwriter for various artists on March 25, 2023. He is accused of participation in post-election protests, Viasna reported.

Extremism lists

Authorities listed 24 people as extremists amid the ongoing crackdown on opposition sympathizers last week, according to an official website. The new entries include Dźmitryj and Uładzimir Karakin, members of the Litesound band that represented the country at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, and their parents Volha Krajko and Uładzimir Karakin. Law enforcers arrested them in October 2022. In March, a judge sentenced the brothers to two and a half years of restricted freedom, a form of house arrest, for public order offenses. The parents were convicted of illegal handling of firearms. The mother was sentenced to two and a half years of restricted freedom and the father to three years. The extremism list now comprises 3,016 names.

Other incidents

Pavał Sieviaryniec, a jailed Christian Democrat, was transferred to Hrodna’s Prison No 1, his mother said on Facebook. A court sentenced the politician to seven years in a medium security colony in May 2021.

There have been no news from a jailed Social Democrat, Mikałaj Statkievič, for five months, his wife said on Facebook. The authorities have held him behind bars since 2020. A court sentenced him to 14 years in a medium security colony in December 2021. In June last year, guards transferred him from a detention center in Homiel to a penal colony in Hłybokaje. Since then, they have regularly locked Statkievič in a punitive cell and disciplined him at least 36 times.

Police transferred Ivan Viarbicki, a jailed artist from Halšany, to Barysaŭ’s Penal Colony No 14 in the Minsk region, according to Viasna. In March 2021, a court sentenced him to eight years and one month for illegal handling of explosives, destruction of official documents and terrorism. The colony administration reportedly held him in a punitive cell and an internal prison for two months. In September 2021, he was transferred to Mahiloŭ’s Penal Colony No 4. In December 2022, a district court in Mahiloŭ convicted Viarbicki of defying orders of the colony’s administration.

An inmate convicted of trafficking in narcotics committed suicide in Babrujsk’s Penal Colony No 2, Mahiloŭ region, on July 8, Mayday Team said. The member of the 6th labor squad reportedly jumped out a window.

As of July 11, human rights defenders identified at least 1,488 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented. Opposition sources estimate the number of political prisoners at around 5,000.