{"id":101080,"date":"2024-08-19T13:41:07","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T10:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/101080\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"viasna-politically-motivated-criminal-cases-up-16-percent-in-july","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/101080\/","title":{"rendered":"Viasna: politically-motivated criminal cases up 16 percent in July"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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August 19, Pozirk<\/em><\/strong>. At least 134 men and 36 women were convicted in politically-motivated criminal cases last month, says a recent report by the Viasna Human Rights Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Convictions rose by 16.4 percent in July, with 78 people sentenced in Minsk alone, it noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 60 percent of all documented cases featured violent disorder charges that Belarusian authorities use to persecute participants in 2020 postelection protests, their families and close relatives, Viasna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two journalists, Ja\u016dhien H\u0142u\u0161ko\u016d and Alaksandar Sabale\u016dski, were given prison terms on extremism-related charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 28 people were sentenced in absentia as the Belarusian judiciary kept filing charges against exiled opponents of Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities keep intimidating regime critics by subjecting former political prisoners to new trials, rights defenders said, noting at least eight similar cases last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of August 19, human rights defenders identified at least 1,375 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarusian authorities have arrested about 65,000 people for political reasons in the four years since the August 2020 presidential election, Viasna reported in early August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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