{"id":198959,"date":"2026-08-06T23:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T23:51:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:51:02","slug":"update-on-politically-motivated-persecution-5","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on politically motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>August 6, <em><strong><em>Pozirk<\/em><\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0<\/strong>Sources in Belarus reported a new criminal case and a wave of harassment against relatives of Belarusians living in exile\u00a0on August 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Below is Pozirk\u2019s recap:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Vadzim Zdaravienna\u016d, a political prisoner serving a two-year term for allegedly insulting Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka, has been charged with three new criminal offenses, namely, participating in mass riots, inciting hatred and leaking personal data, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Authorities have stepped up pressure on the relatives of exiled Belarusian journalists, with police officers questioning their parents and searching their homes. In recent weeks, human rights defenders have learned about at least 15 such cases as a wave of harassment has swept across Belarus. Several targeted individuals have been forced to provide saliva samples for genetic testing, the Belarusian Association of Journalists reported.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Human rights defenders have recorded 183 cases of politically motivated persecution over links to European Humanities University (EHU) in Vilnius have been recorded, including 156 inside Belarus. Several relatives of EHU students have been sentenced to 15 days in jail under the Administrative Offenses Code, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As of July 31, 2026, there were 880 political prisoners in Belarus, including 120 women. As many as 3,926 people held the status of former political prisoner. Since 2020, at least 10,016 people have faced politically motivated criminal prosecution and at least 8,670 have been convicted, including without defendants being present. Eighty new politically motivated criminal cases were documented in July, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The number of documented political prisoners in Belarus decreased by one to 879, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. The actual number of political prisoners in the country is much larger, as many cases go unreported.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 6, Pozirk.\u00a0Sources in Belarus reported a new criminal case and a wave of harassment against relatives of Belarusians living in exile\u00a0on August 6. Below is Pozirk\u2019s recap:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-198959","articles","type-articles","status-publish","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>Update on politically motivated persecution | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"August 6, Pozirk.\u00a0Sources in Belarus reported a new criminal case and a wave of harassment against relatives of Belarusians living in exile\u00a0on August 6.\" \/>\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\/198959\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Update on politically motivated persecution | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 6, Pozirk.\u00a0Sources in Belarus reported a new criminal case and a wave of harassment against relatives of Belarusians living in exile\u00a0on August 6.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/\" \/>\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=\"2026-08-06T20:51:02+00:00\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/\"},\"headline\":\"Update on politically motivated persecution\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-06T20:51:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-06T20:51:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/\"},\"wordCount\":279,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/\",\"name\":\"Update on politically motivated persecution | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-06T20:51:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-06T20:51:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"August 6, Pozirk.\u00a0Sources in Belarus reported a new criminal case and a wave of harassment against relatives of Belarusians living in exile\u00a0on August 6.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Update on politically motivated persecution\"}]},{\"@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":"Update on politically motivated persecution | Pozirk","description":"August 6, Pozirk.\u00a0Sources in Belarus reported a new criminal case and a wave of harassment against relatives of Belarusians living in exile\u00a0on August 6.","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\/198959\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Update on politically motivated persecution | Pozirk","og_description":"August 6, Pozirk.\u00a0Sources in Belarus reported a new criminal case and a wave of harassment against relatives of Belarusians living in exile\u00a0on August 6.","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-08-06T20:51:02+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Pozirk_online","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/"},"headline":"Update on politically motivated persecution","datePublished":"2026-08-06T20:51:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-06T20:51:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/"},"wordCount":279,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/","name":"Update on politically motivated persecution | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-08-06T20:51:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-06T20:51:02+00:00","description":"August 6, Pozirk.\u00a0Sources in Belarus reported a new criminal case and a wave of harassment against relatives of Belarusians living in exile\u00a0on August 6.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198959\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Update on politically motivated persecution"}]},{"@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\/198959","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\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"rubric","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rubric?post=198959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}