More than 100 Belarusians prosecuted for donations to opposition solidarity initiatives

October 25, Pozirk. Belarusian police opened 16 criminal cases of financing extremism based on data collected online between 2020 and September 2023, the opposition’s BelPol association said, citing its own sources.

Eight criminal cases were initiated in 2023 alone. All the cases involved donations made to BySol and By_help before these two solidarity funds were declared “extremist.”

In addition, about 100 extremism- and terrorism-financing cases filed in 2022 and 2023 stemmed from data collected by the State Control Committee’s financial investigations department, BelPol said.

Many criminal cases were opened against “unidentified persons” based on bank transactions monitoring, the group said.

In July, Belarusian judges convicted at least 19 persons in connection with donations to opposition solidarity funds after the 2020 presidential election, with prison terms from three to six years imposed on 12 convicts, according to the Viasna Human Rights Center. At least ten other persons are held in custody pending trial.

In July, the State Control Committee said it had detected 75 crimes related to “financing of terrorist and extremist activities” in the first half of 2023.