{"id":136160,"date":"2025-04-29T19:41:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T16:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/136160\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"amnesty-international-reprisals-against-media-civil-society-intensified-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/136160\/","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty International: reprisals against media, civil society intensified in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n (amnesty.org)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

April 29, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> Belarusian authorities kept cracking down on all forms of public dissent last year, abusing the justice system to persecute regime critics, says<\/a> the annual report on human rights by Amnesty International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document noted the escalation of pressure on independent media outlets, citing the expansion of the official register of banned online, printed and broadcast content and “extremist” designations for dissidents and journalists as examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reprisals also targeted independent NGOs, religious groups, LGBTI community and people who participated in 2020 postelection protests with harassment extending to families of protesters, it said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People convicted on charges widely seen as politically-motivated endured harsher treatment behind bars and were often denied adequate healthcare or thrown in punishment cells, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several high-profile jailed opposition figures, including former presidential hopefuls Siarhiej Cichano\u016dski and Viktar Babaryka, journalist Ihar \u0141osik, lawyer Maksim Znak and politician Mika\u0142aj Statkievi\u010d were denied contact with the outside world, which could amount to enforced disappearances, it stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rights defenders described torture and other forms of ill-treatment as endemic, noting that perpetrators remain unpunished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of April 29, human rights defenders identified at least 1,201 political prisoners in Belarus but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former prisoner \u0160arenda-Panasiuk accused of calling for sanctions<\/h3>\n
April 29, Pozirk. Belarusian authorities charged exiled opposition activist Palina \u0160arenda-Panasiuk with calling for sanctions and violating preventive supervision after her release from prison, her husband Andrej \u0160arenda said on Facebook. Police interrogated her Belarus-based family members, he added. \u0160arenda-Panasiuk …<\/div>\n \n