Eleven teenagers held political prisoners in Belarus – rights group

November 20, Pozirk. Eleven teenagers are imprisoned in Belarus on politically-motivated charges, according to the Viasna Human Rights Center.

Its report has been released on World Children’s Day, marking the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1959.

Mikita Załataroŭ, Siarhiej Hackievič, Eduard Kudyniuk, Maksim Imchavik, Ivan Paciajčuk, Dzianis Chaziej, Alaksandar Viniarski, Pavieł Piskun, Aleh Dabrydnieŭ, Arciom Vajciachovič and Mikita Bruj were legal minors at the time of their arrest.

Thousands of children have witnessed arrests and criminal persecution of their parents since 2020, while dozens ended up behind bars themselves, Viasna said. Some minors were beaten and tortured, it noted.

Załataroŭ was arrested in August 2020, when he was 16 years old. Authorities sent him to a juvenile detention center after finding him guilty of organizing mass riots and threatening violence against a police officer.

In August 2022, he was transferred to Prison No 8 in Žodzina, Minsk region, to serve the rest of his four-and-a-half-year term.

Załataroŭ has epilepsy and repeatedly complained to his family about severe beatings and the use of tasers against him.

As of November 20, human rights defenders identified at least 1,445 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.