{"id":45283,"date":"2023-01-11T18:12:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T15:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/articles\/update-on-arrests-trials-politically-motivated-persecution\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"update-on-arrests-trials-politically-motivated-persecution","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/45283\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>January 11, <span>BPN.<\/span><\/b> New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on January 10.<\/p>\n<p> Arrests<\/p>\n<p> Law enforcers in Hrodna arrested local resident Siarhiej Botvi\u010d for alleged calls for protests, <span>Sudy, Zaderzhaniya. Hrodna i Oblast<\/span> reported.<\/p>\n<p> Security forces in \u015aviet\u0142ahorsk, Homiel region, arrested local resident U\u0142adzimir Adziniec for online comments, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n<p> Charges<\/p>\n<p> Police completed an investigation against lawyer Alaksandr Danilevi\u010d and forwarded the case files to prosecutors, the Investigative Committee\u2019s press office reported. Investigators accuse the jailed lawyer of complicity in calling for sanctions and promoting extremism.<\/p>\n<p> Trials<\/p>\n<p> A judge sentenced a jailed co-founder of the 100 Ballov education center, teacher Ja\u016dhien Liviant, to 10 days behind bars on top of his 14 days\u2019 term for disorderly conduct, <span>Radyjo Svaboda <\/span>reported.<\/p>\n<p> In December, police arrested a street musician in Minsk for performing a pro-Ukrainian song&nbsp;by the Lyapis Trubetskoy rock band. He is serving a jail term, Viasna reported.<\/p>\n<p> A contributor&nbsp;of the<span> Spad\u010dyna<\/span> Telegram channel, U\u0142adzis\u0142a\u016d \u010cachovi\u010d, was sentenced to 15 days in jail for disseminating \u201cextremist\u201d content. He had been arrested on December 26, Viasna said. <\/p>\n<p> The prosecutor requested that alleged administrators of <span>Chernaya Kniga Belarusi<\/span> (Black Book of Belarus), an online project exposing the identities of security officers who mistreated and brutalized peaceful protesters, be sentenced to 12 years in prison, Viasna reported. The trial of Janina Sazanovi\u010d, Danii\u0142 Bahdanovi\u010d, D\u017amitry Navo\u0161a, Volha Vysockaja and Valeryja Zaniamonskaja opened in the Minsk City Court on December 12 without the defendants being present.<\/p>\n<p> Singer Meryjem Hierasimienka, who was arrested in August for performing pro-Ukrainian songs and charged with&nbsp;public disorder, will go on trial on January 19, Viasna reported.<\/p>\n<p> Political prisoner Juryj Ka\u015bciuk went on trial at&nbsp;the Brest Regional Court, Viasna said. He was arrested in Russia in October last year. Ka\u015bciuk is charged with two criminal offences. He had already served a politically motivated restricted freedom sentence.<\/p>\n<p> A judge in Minsk stripped the Janu\u0161kievi\u010d publishing house of its license, said <span>Kniha\u016dka<\/span>, the publisher\u2019s Telegram channel. Last year, Janu\u0161kievi\u010d relocated from Belarus to Poland after spending time in jail.<\/p>\n<p> Prison conditions<\/p>\n<p> Law enforcers transferred Alaksandr Rajenta\u016d, serving a five-year sentence for two criminal offences, to \u017dodzina\u2019s Prison No. 8 in the Minsk region, Viasna said.<\/p>\n<p> Other news<\/p>\n<p> Viasna wrote that Russian social network VKontakte blocked its and the <span>Zerkalo <\/span>news website\u2019s pages at the request of Belarusian authorities.<\/p>\n<p> Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka rejected a petition to pardon convicted Russian national Sofya Sapega, <span>Mediazona<\/span> reported. She is serving a six-year sentence for administering opposition Telegram channel <span>Chernaya Kniga Belarusi<\/span>. <\/p>\n<p> Polish writer Maja Wolny, who was planning to visit Belarus under its visa waiver program, was denied entry to the country on January 9. <\/p>\n<p> Family members of people imprisoned on politically-motivated charges in Belarus and former political prisoners urged world leaders to take more decisive action for the release of political prisoners. It should include negotiations as well as both public and non-public diplomacy, they stressed. The group includes Ta\u0107ciana Chomi\u010d, sister of prominent imprisoned regime critic Maryja Kale\u015bnikava; Alaksandr \u0141ojka, husband of imprisoned journalist Iryna S\u0142a\u016dnikava; and \u015aviat\u0142ana Mackievi\u010d, wife of a prominent opposition activist and philosopher U\u0142adzimir Mackievi\u010d. Twenty-nine persons have signed the appeal so far.<\/p>\n<p> A national commission evaluated 1,400 works and messages for extremism in 2021-22, says a report on the activities of MP Lilija Anani\u010d, the commission\u2019s head. \u201cOf these, 1,379 were found to contain signs of extremism and rehabilitation of Nazism,\u201d the report reads. In all, it found signs of extremism in 98.5 percent of the examined print, audio, video and other items.<\/p>\n<p>As of January 11, human rights defenders identified at least 1,440 political prisoners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>January 11, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on January 10. Arrests Law enforcers in Hrodna arrested local resident Siarhiej Botvi\u010d for alleged calls for protests, Sudy, Zaderzhaniya. Hrodna i Oblast reported. Security forces in \u015aviet\u0142ahorsk, Homiel region, arrested local resident U\u0142adzimir Adziniec for online comments, the Viasna Human Rights Center [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-45283","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=\"January 11, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on January 10. 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