{"id":168714,"date":"2025-12-18T11:19:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/168714\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"new-convictions-censorship-incidents-reported-across-belarus","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/168714\/","title":{"rendered":"New convictions, censorship incidents reported across Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>December 18,<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;<em>Pozirk<\/em><em>.<\/em> <\/strong>New instances of politically-motivated persecution documented on December 17 included at least two convictions, seven additions to the list of political prisoners and a new arrest of reenactment enthusiast in Mahilo\u016d. <strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Minsk City Court sentenced Raman Basa\u0142aj, an IT professional, to prison on extremism charges, <em>Na\u0161a Niva<\/em> reported. The newspaper was not able to find out the term of his sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another court sentenced Ja\u016dhien Ruba\u0161ka, an imprisoned opposition activist, to an additional year in prison for allegedly defying orders of the penal colony\u2019s administration, <em>AChK Belarus<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Supreme Court threw out an appeal by Alaksandar \u0141apko, an exiled opposition activist, against a 16-year prison sentence handed down by the Homiel Regional Court in his absence, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u0141apko was convicted over alleged links to BySol and BY_Help solidarity funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police arrested Pavie\u0142 Stankievi\u010d, leader of the Mahilo\u016d-based historical reenactment club Barysfen, Mayday.Team reported. He is held in the city\u2019s detention center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On December 17, Belarus\u2019 interior ministry branded Barysfen an extremist group, weeks after Stankievi\u010d spent 30 days in jail for an alleged minor offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belarusian human rights defenders declared 7 more people as political prisoners, according to Viasna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The additions are Via\u010des\u0142a\u016d Kruk, convicted of inciting social hatred, insulting the head of state and an official; Raman Husiejna\u016d and Siarhiej Cvikievi\u010d convicted of inciting social hatred and mass disorder; D\u017amitryj Kova\u010d convicted of inciting hatred and mass disorder; Valancin Panasiuk convicted of high treason; D\u017amitryj Karasio\u016d sentenced to four years in prison on charges of inciting social hatred; and Mika\u0142aj Vitko\u016dski sentenced to 15 years on high treason charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The information ministry has expanded its list of extremist content, adding the Telegram channel ZO\u0141AK; politicalprisonersbelarus, mnbelarus, mn_vilnia on Instagram; Belorusy Strasburga, Belorusy v Lodzi \/ Bialorusini W Lodzkim on Facebook; Binokl. Zhurnal o Breste on VK; the YouTube channels \u0418\u041d\u0424\u041eVESTI, ZERKALO and groshi; the ForumCiv website; the OK pages of Radio Svoboda, valentina naumova; and the TiTok accounts belarus_1, belarussapraudny, svoj.tutejsy, syn.taho.kraju and alex.yuruts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Human rights activists confirmed 127 arrests over links to the now-defunct Bie\u0142aruski Hajun online initiative that monitored Russian military activities in Belarus since 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belarus\u2019 Committee for State Security (KGB) has been using the ResidentBat spyware since 2021 to target, among others, journalists,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/rsf.org\/en\/exclusive-rsf-uncovers-new-spyware-belarus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">found<\/a>&nbsp;Reporters Without Borders (RSF)\u2019s Digital Security Lab (DSL), working with the Eastern European organization RESIDENT.NGO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ResidentBat was detected on the smartphone of a journalist who had been questioned by the KGB. RSF has verified the person\u2019s identity but is not publishing it for security reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the interrogation at KGB premises, the individual was asked to place the smartphone in a locker. During questioning, the journalist was required to show content on the device and unlocked the phone in an officer\u2019s presence. Afterwards, the device was placed in the locker again. The individual and RSF believe that the security forces observed the PIN entry, retrieved the phone during the interrogation and installed the spyware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few days later, antivirus software flagged suspicious components on the device. The individual contacted RESIDENT.NGO, which carried out a forensic analysis together with RSF\u2019s DSL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of December 16, human rights defenders identified at least 1,111 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher due to many undocumented cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 18,&nbsp;Pozirk. New instances of politically-motivated persecution documented on December 17 included at least two convictions, seven additions to the list of political prisoners and a new arrest of reenactment enthusiast in Mahilo\u016d. &nbsp; The Minsk City Court sentenced Raman Basa\u0142aj, an IT professional, to prison on extremism charges, Na\u0161a Niva reported. The newspaper was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":63993,"template":"","rubric":[16,15],"class_list":["post-168714","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics","rubric-society"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New convictions, censorship incidents reported across Belarus | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 18,&nbsp;Pozirk. 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