{"id":167654,"date":"2025-12-11T10:47:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T07:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/167654\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"reprisals-officials-rely-on-extremism-charges-to-silence-critics","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/167654\/","title":{"rendered":"Reprisals: officials rely on extremism charges to silence critics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

December 11, Pozirk.<\/em> <\/strong>New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 10, with 10 new designated political prisoners, pressure on female inmates in Homiel and an arrest on a Russian train that travelled via Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Belarusian woman with a child was arrested while passing through Belarus on a train from Russia\u2019s exclave of Kaliningrad to Adler in southern Russia on December 2, the Viasna Human Rights Center said. Belarusian law enforcers reportedly found opposition content on her phone, which they described as extremist. Her whereabouts remain unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison authorities at Penal Colony No 4 for women in Homiel force inmates to pay for phone calls to their families. Those who decline to make the so-called \u201cvoluntary\u201d payments have their call times sharply reduced or are denied phone access altogether, with officials citing unspecified \u201ctechnical reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minsk authorities launched a Telegram chatbot to collect political denunciations, encouraging residents to submit anonymous reports about \u201cproblem issues in the ideological sphere,\u201d Pozirk <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rights groups added 10 more names to their list of political prisoners yesterday. They all were convicted of extremism for sending information on movements of military equipment to the Bie\u0142aruski Hajun website, membership of opposition social media groups and other political activity, Viasna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of December 11, human rights defenders identified at least 1,217 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Minsk government launches chatbot for political denunciations<\/h3>\n
December 10, Pozirk. The Minsk city government has launched a Telegram chatbot to collect political denunciations. The Minsk City Executive Committee and the Minsk Novosti news outlet are encouraging residents to submit anonymous reports about \u201cproblem issues in the ideological …<\/div>\n \n