July 5, Pozirk. Belarusian human rights groups have designated 17 more people as political prisoners, according to a joint statement on the Viasna Human Rights Center website. Their charges ranged from violent disorder to insulting officials and defaming the head of state.
The status was granted to Dźmitryj Puzikaŭ (six months in a penal colony), Darja Zajac (a year in a penal colony) and Valeryja Drahun (a year in a penal colony).
The groups also named Dzianis Siemianichin (a year in a penal colony), Andrej Karaloŭ (two years in a penal colony), Alena Dubroŭskaja (a year and a half in a penal colony) and Juryj Jurčuk (an unknown period in an open-type corrective institution).
The others were Alena Karpienka (a year and a half in a penal colony), Ivan Dziarnovič (four years in a penal colony) and Taćciana Makiejeva (taken into custody).
The human rights defenders also designated several people sent to a psychiatric hospital for compulsory treatment for alleged defamation: former film director Rusłan Zholič, Dźmitryj Siŭko, Alaksandar Ciupa, Ivan Mikša and Alaksandar Syryca.
The groups consider the persecution and imprisonment of all these people to be politically motivated and related to the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression.
They call on the Belarusian government to decriminalize defamation and repeal the Criminal Code articles carrying punishment for insulting the state, its symbols and public officials.
A total of 1,423 people are currently serving politically-motivated sentences in Belarus, according to rights activists. Tens of thousands have suffered various forms of reprisals since the disputed presidential election of 2020.
