{"id":193444,"date":"2026-06-26T13:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T10:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T13:01:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T10:01:21","slug":"viasna-at-least-27-soldiers-held-behind-bars-on-political-grounds","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/","title":{"rendered":"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>June 26, <em>Pozirk.<\/em> <\/strong>At least 68 Belarusian military personnel have faced politically-motivated criminal prosecution since 2020, with 27 still held in custody, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of these, 24 are serving prison sentences, two have been sentenced to restricted freedom terms and placed in open-type correctional facilities, while one remains in custody awaiting trial. At least ten were convicted of high treason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The longest known sentence imposed by a court on a military member is 21 years in prison, Viasna noted.\u00a0 Rights activists also reported cases of torture, ill-treatment, beatings and pressure on family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"insert-block\">\n\n    <div class=\"insert-block__img\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/\u0442\u044e\u0440\u044c\u043c\u0430-\u0441\u043e\u043b\u043d\u0446\u0435-\u043f\u0438\u043a\u0441\u0430\u0431\u0430\u0439-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/\u0442\u044e\u0440\u044c\u043c\u0430-\u0441\u043e\u043b\u043d\u0446\u0435-\u043f\u0438\u043a\u0441\u0430\u0431\u0430\u0439-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/\u0442\u044e\u0440\u044c\u043c\u0430-\u0441\u043e\u043b\u043d\u0446\u0435-\u043f\u0438\u043a\u0441\u0430\u0431\u0430\u0439-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/\u0442\u044e\u0440\u044c\u043c\u0430-\u0441\u043e\u043b\u043d\u0446\u0435-\u043f\u0438\u043a\u0441\u0430\u0431\u0430\u0439-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/\u0442\u044e\u0440\u044c\u043c\u0430-\u0441\u043e\u043b\u043d\u0446\u0435-\u043f\u0438\u043a\u0441\u0430\u0431\u0430\u0439.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>                        <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> Society<\/label>\n\n                <\/div>\n    <div class=\"insert-block__text\">\n                    <label class=\"insert-block__tag\">Society<\/label>\n                <h3 class=\"insert-block__title\">Opposition leader: torture integrated into Belarus\u2019 prison system<\/h3>\n        <div class=\"insert-block__descr\">June 26, Pozirk. Torture has become a part of the horrific prison experience that hundreds of Belarusians go through every day, Belarusian opposition leader \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja has said on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, her press &#8230;<\/div>\n        <a class=\"insert-block__btn-block\" href=\"\/en\/news\/193443\">\n            <button class=\"btn\">\n                <div class='btn__text'>Read <\/div>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 26, Pozirk. At least 68 Belarusian military personnel have faced politically-motivated criminal prosecution since 2020, with 27 still held in custody, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. Of these, 24 are serving prison sentences, two have been sentenced to restricted freedom terms and placed in open-type correctional facilities, while one remains in custody awaiting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":193438,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-193444","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"June 26, Pozirk. At least 68 Belarusian military personnel have faced politically-motivated criminal prosecution since 2020, with 27 still held in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 26, Pozirk. At least 68 Belarusian military personnel have faced politically-motivated criminal prosecution since 2020, with 27 still held in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T10:01:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"752\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/\"},\"headline\":\"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T10:01:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-26T10:01:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/\"},\"wordCount\":101,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/\",\"name\":\"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T10:01:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-26T10:01:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"June 26, Pozirk. At least 68 Belarusian military personnel have faced politically-motivated criminal prosecution since 2020, with 27 still held in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg\",\"width\":1128,\"height\":752},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Pozirk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds | Pozirk","description":"June 26, Pozirk. At least 68 Belarusian military personnel have faced politically-motivated criminal prosecution since 2020, with 27 still held in","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds | Pozirk","og_description":"June 26, Pozirk. At least 68 Belarusian military personnel have faced politically-motivated criminal prosecution since 2020, with 27 still held in","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-06-26T10:01:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1128,"height":752,"url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Pozirk_online","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/"},"headline":"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds","datePublished":"2026-06-26T10:01:19+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-26T10:01:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/"},"wordCount":101,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/","name":"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg","datePublished":"2026-06-26T10:01:19+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-26T10:01:21+00:00","description":"June 26, Pozirk. At least 68 Belarusian military personnel have faced politically-motivated criminal prosecution since 2020, with 27 still held in","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/prisyaga-rtr-belarus.jpg","width":1128,"height":752},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/193444\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Viasna: at least 27 soldiers held behind bars on political grounds"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","name":"Pozirk","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization","name":"Pozirk","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Pozirk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/193444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"rubric","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rubric?post=193444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}