{"id":2538,"date":"2023-09-20T11:24:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T08:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=2538"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"update-on-arrests-trials-politically-motivated-persecution-24","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/2538\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>September 20,\u00a0<em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on September 19 with more opposition content blacklisted as extremist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arrests<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Homiel police arrested a man for allegedly following opposition content, a pro-government source said. In the police video of his confession apparently extracted under duress \u2013 he seems to be uttering what police told him \u2013 he also admitted to the intention to join Belarusian volunteers fighting Russia in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police also arrested a Bulbash beverage company employee, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. In the police video, she admitted to posting anti-Russian comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trials<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A judge in Ma\u0142adzie\u010dna, Minsk region, jailed Siarhiej Kisiel for 12 days on charges of breaking regulations governing mass events, Viasna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Criminal proceedings<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A judge in Viciebsk sentenced D\u017amitryj Zaha\u0142aviec to three and a half years in prison on charges of insulting Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka, facilitating and financing extremism, Viasna said. Pro-government sources claimed that he encouraged people to build barricades, derail trains and attack police officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Extremist content update<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities blacklisted the symbols, website and social media associated with the Rada of the Belarusian National Republic (BNR), Belarus&#8217; oldest government in exile, as extremist content. Other blacklisted items include several opposition Telegram channels and social media accounts as well as&nbsp;<em>zerkalo.io&nbsp;<\/em>mirror sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of September 20, human rights defenders identified at least 1,505 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented. Opposition sources estimate the number of political prisoners at around 5,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>September 20,\u00a0Pozirk.\u00a0New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on September 19 with more opposition content blacklisted as extremist. Arrests Homiel police arrested a man for allegedly following opposition content, a pro-government source said. In the police video of his confession apparently extracted under duress \u2013 he seems to be uttering what police told [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[14],"class_list":["post-2538","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 arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 20,\u00a0Pozirk.\u00a0New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on September 19 with more opposition content blacklisted\" \/>\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\/2538\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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