{"id":45036,"date":"2022-12-23T12:20:25","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T09:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/articles\/update-on-trials-and-politically-motivated-persecution\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"update-on-trials-and-politically-motivated-persecution","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/45036\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on trials and politically-motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <b>December 23, <span>BPN<\/span>. <\/b>New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 22.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Criminal proceedings\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Minsk Regional Court sentenced Vital Mielnik to 16 years in a high-security prison for an alleged act of sabotage carried out in protest against Russia\u2019s assault on Ukraine, <span>Dissidentby<\/span> reported. He was also fined 9,600 rubels (about $3,565).\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t A court in Minsk sentenced Michai\u0142 Sudnik and his wife Darja to three years of restricted freedom in home confinement for participation in 2020 protests, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. Authorities used a picture from a book on protests to charge them.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Via\u010das\u0142a\u016d A\u016d\u010duk from Pinsk, Brest region, was sentenced to two years in prison for an online comment allegedly insulting Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Viasna&#8217;s jailed leaders will go on trial at a Minsk court on January 5. The Nobel Peace Prize winner Ale\u015b Bialacki and his associates Valancin Stefanovi\u010d and U\u0142adzimir \u0141abkovi\u010d face charges of smuggling cash across the border and financing protests. \u0179micier Sa\u0142a\u016djo\u016d, who fled the country, would be tried in absentia as part of the same case.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Trials\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Authorities jailed a worker from a Minsk district company (name withheld) for 13 days for a white-red-white flag sticker on his locker in the company\u2019s changing room, Viasna said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t New criminal cases\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Belarusian authorities started special proceedings against U\u0142adzimir Astapienka, former Belarus&#8217; ambassador to Argentina and current head of the opposition\u2019s Brussels office, <span>BPN<\/span> reported. Prosecutors accuse the diplomat of large-scale embezzlement.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t D\u017amitryj Hulin from the Brest region faces charges of high treason for allegedly passing information on activities and locations of Russian troops in Belarus to the Ukrainian secret services, the Brest branch of Viasna said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Release\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Authorities released Maksim Lacuncevi\u010d, father of seven, after he had served in full a 22-month prison term for online comments on the 2021 shootout involving an IT engineer and KGB officers, known as the &#8220;Zielcer case.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t New political prisoners\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Human rights defenders added eight more people to the political prisoners&#8217; list, taking their total to 1,442 as of December 23, Viasna reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 23, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 22. Criminal proceedings The Minsk Regional Court sentenced Vital Mielnik to 16 years in a high-security prison for an alleged act of sabotage carried out in protest against Russia\u2019s assault on Ukraine, Dissidentby reported. He was also fined 9,600 rubels (about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-45036","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 trials and politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 23, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 22. 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