{"id":137346,"date":"2025-05-09T12:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T09:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/137346\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"reprisals-authorities-brand-29-regime-critics-as-extremists-10-as-terrorists","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/137346\/","title":{"rendered":"Reprisals: authorities brand 29 regime critics as extremists, 10 as terrorists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

May 9, Pozirk<\/em>. <\/strong>New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on May 8 as the interior ministry designated 29 more individuals as extremists, taking the total on the extremist register to 5,257 entries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the new designees is Andrej Parotnika\u016d, of Belarus Security Blog, serving a lengthy prison term in a politically-motivated case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Belarusian Supreme Court upheld a three-year prison sentence against Brest businessman Andrej Varonin, passed without the defendant being present at the trial. Authorities persecuted him for allegedly calling for sanctions, the Viasna Human Rights Center said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The information ministry announced extremist content designations for let_nasta_go Instagram account following the fate of jailed rights defender Nasta Lojka as well as galya_remishkina and dushi_jabatek. Other blacklisted content includes kalinouskipolk on Facebook, Basta! on YouTube, Antitarakan and Aliaksandr Apeikin on TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Committee for State Security (KGB) included 10 people in the list of \u201cpersons involved in terrorist activities,\u201d says a document published on its Telegram channel. Pavie\u0142 \u0141a\u0161\u010danka, former head of Ernst & Young Belarus, jailed Imahuru startup hub manager Ja\u016dhien Puha\u010d along with his exiled colleagues Ta\u0107ciana Maryni\u010d and Anastasija Chamiankova are among the new additions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 254 people have been convicted of extremist crimes in Belarus since 2020, as officials kept abusing anti-extremist and anti-terrorist laws to stifle dissent, Viasna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-six people convicted in politically-motivated cases were released in April after serving their sentences in full, with more than 1,500 such convicts released since 2020, according to Viasna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of May 9, human rights defenders identified at least 1,176 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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