{"id":3768,"date":"2023-10-04T10:26:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T07:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=3768"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"update-on-arrests-trials-politically-motivated-persecution-33","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/3768\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>October 4,\u00a0<em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on October 3 as authorities kept punishing dissenters and those supporting opposition initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arrested and released<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police arrested another employee of the Yurspektr law firm&nbsp;for allegedly writing government-critical comments and participating in protests&nbsp; in 2020, a pro-government Telegram channel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blogger Alaksandar Linski is under arrest for sharing an opposition video, a pro-government Telegram channel said. The charges and whereabouts remain unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities released journalist Siarhiej Hardzijevi\u010d after he spent 15 days in jail after being convicted of sharing opposition content, the Belarusian Association of Journalists&nbsp;reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New criminal charges<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About 60 people are suspected of financing extremism for participating in We Do Care! online fundraiser in support of political prisoners and their families, the Investigative Committee reported but did not disclose the names of all&nbsp;the accused.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Criminal proceedings<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Supreme Court rejected the appeal by human rights defender Anastasija \u0141ojka against the seven-year prison sentence, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trials<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On September 13, a judge in Liozna, Viciebsk region, sentenced Illa Samochin to 20 hours of community service and ruled to confiscate his smartphone for giving a like to&nbsp;<em>Radyjo Svaboda<\/em>&#8216;s Instagram post, according to the register of court decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Detention conditions<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On September 16, authorities transferred Ihar Lankievi\u010d from a penal colony to a closed prison for the next two years, Viasna reported. He is currently serving a term of five and a half years for an alleged offense against public order. He has been on the list of persons &#8220;involved in terrorist activities&#8221; for over a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Extremist content update<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities blacklisted several Telegram channels and social media accounts as extremist content, including the Rushennie and Borisov ok Instagram pages and the Beregi_sebia TikTok account, Viasna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other instances of persecution<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musician Mikita Najdziona\u016d left Belarus and is now in Warsaw, he said on Instagram. In late July, he was given three years of restricted freedom in home confinement on charges of gross violations of public order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September, rights groups recorded at least 386 instances of politically-motivated persecution, including 339 trials. Authorities jailed 79 people for a total of 945 days and fined 46 people a total of 34,743 rubels (about $10,500). Ten people persecuted over participation in protests were declared political prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of October 4, human rights defenders identified at least 1,489 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>October 4,\u00a0Pozirk.\u00a0New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on October 3 as authorities kept punishing dissenters and those supporting opposition initiatives. Arrested and released Police arrested another employee of the Yurspektr law firm&nbsp;for allegedly writing government-critical comments and participating in protests&nbsp; in 2020, a pro-government Telegram channel said. Blogger Alaksandar Linski is under [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-3768","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=\"October 4,\u00a0Pozirk.\u00a0New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on October 3 as authorities kept punishing dissenters and\" \/>\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\/3768\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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