{"id":146812,"date":"2025-07-15T12:24:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T09:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/146812\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"reprisals-exiled-blogger-charged-with-insulting-state-symbols","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/146812\/","title":{"rendered":"Reprisals: exiled blogger charged with insulting state symbols"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Highlights from reports received between July 12 and 14:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An exiled blogger faces criminal charges after wearing a police uniform at an LGBT+ rally<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hrodna residents tried for participating in protest Telegram chats<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia puts an exiled journalist on its wanted list<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 15, Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> Two residents of Mahilo\u016d were detained upon returning to Belarus, allegedly for possessing New Belarus Passports. According to pro-government media, security forces threaten to charge the men with supporting extremist activity. The chief adviser to opposition leader \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja, Franak Via\u010dorka, dismissed the passport allegation as \u201cfake.\u201d He said officers either staged the detentions or \u201cdecided to set someone up.\u201d The Office of \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja denied that the detainees possessed the opposition IDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities press criminal charges against a makeup artist in Babrujsk, Mahilo\u016d region. According to the Investigative Committee, she is accused of sharing a video of Russian military hardware with an extremist group in 2022. The woman is in custody. Her husband is serving a sentence for protesting in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exiled comedian Andrej Pavuk was charged with insulting state symbols, propagandist Ryhor Azaronak said on Telegram. Last month, Pavuk participated in an LGBT+ rally in Vilnius wearing a Belarusian police uniform and waving the official red-green flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Minsk resident was sentenced to three months in jail for tearing down a flag and its mount, Minsk-Novosti<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five locals went on trial in Hrodna, accused of participating in grassroots Telegram chats, Viasna reported. Details are unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry of Internal Affairs designated the folk-punk band Dzieciuki as an \u201cextremist group.\u201d The Committee for State Security (KGB) assigned the same designation to the Education Office for New Belarus. The KGB also banned the TikTok account Naviny Hrodna i Vob\u0142a\u015bci as extremist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The content of over a dozen social media pages was declared extremist, the information ministry reported. They included the Telegram page Bie\u0142aruskaja Akademija, the Odnoklassniki page Kera Belarus, the Facebook page Daj Darohu! and the TikTok page Mo\u0142adzievy Nastup (Youth Offensive).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalist Ihar Karniej, a former political prisoner, told the Obychnoye Utro YouTube show that while he was in the detention center of \u0160k\u0142o\u016d\u2019s Penal Colony No. 17 in the Mahilo\u016d region, investigators approached him regarding a criminal case against people who had sent him aid parcels during his pretrial detention in Minsk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarusian journalist Ta\u0107ciana Karaviankova said on Facebook that she is wanted in Russia. Karaviankova\u2019s entry on the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs website does not specify the charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natalla Masiuk, an emigrant from the Minsk region\u2019s S\u0142uck, reported a KGB attempt to recruit her through social media, Salidarna\u015b\u0107 <\/em>reported. Masiuk lives with her four children in Montenegro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

D\u017amitry Siem\u010danka, a former state television <\/em>journalist, was released after serving his three-year sentence. Officials had accused Siem\u010danka of inciting hatred. He is on Belarus\u2019 \u201cterrorist list\u201d and has no right to manage bank accounts and get payment cards or SIM cards in his name, Viasna reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 15, human rights defenders identified at least 1,148 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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