Interior ministry adds 33 to its extremist list

December 15, Pozirk. The interior ministry has added 33 more people to its list of “persons involved in extremist activities,” taking their total to 3,628.

Thirteen of them are currently serving prison sentences, while the criminal records of the remaining 20 are marked as not expunged.

One of the new additions is Kateryna Brukhanova, a Ukrainian national. In mid-October, a judge in Brest sentenced her to two and a half years in prison for sharing videos of Russian military equipment en route to Ukraine.

Jailed Leanid Rajčonak and Valancin Štermier are also on the list. Rajčonak was given six years in prison for donations to Belarusian volunteers fighting Russians in Ukraine; Štermier, five years on extremism-related charges. Human rights groups consider all three political prisoners. 

People placed on the list of individuals involved in extremist activities are prohibited from engaging in education, publishing, as well as from holding state positions and from doing military service, for five years after completing their sentences or criminal record annulment. Their financial transactions are subject to close monitoring. They are also banned from activities involving narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, arms and ammunition and explosives, for five years.

Authorities in Belarus have equated criticism, solidarity, advocacy, free media and free expression to extremism and terrorism.