{"id":45887,"date":"2023-02-28T13:11:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T10:11:26","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\/45887\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <b>February 28, <span>BPN<\/span>.<\/b> New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on February 27.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Arrests\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Police arrested Kry\u015bcina Maksimienka in Ma\u010duli\u0161\u010dy, Minsk region, Siarhiej Ja\u016dtuchovi\u010d in Dziar\u017eynsk, Minsk region, as well as several people in Fanipal, Dziar\u017eynsk district, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. They all are awaiting trial and may be facing charges of disobeying police orders. Human rights groups link the arrests to an alleged attack on a Russian military aircraft at the Ma\u010duli\u0161\u010dy military airfield near Minsk the previous day.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Police also arrested Viktar Ba\u010dko\u016dski, 32, an employee of a Minsk IT company, for comments in the Telegram messaging app, <span>Na\u0161a Niva<\/span> reported.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Criminal proceedings\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Authorities sentenced blogger Siarhiej Cichano\u016dski to additional 18 months in prison on new charges of malicious disobedience to the prison authorities, the Prosecutor General&#8217;s Office reported. The husband of Belarusian opposition leader Sviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja is currently serving an 18-year prison term.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Minsk Regional Court sentenced Alaksandr Jemialjana\u016d from Minsk to three years in prison for online comments, Viasna said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t A court in the Mahilo\u016d region sentenced Pavie\u0142 Amialjana\u016d to three years in prison on charges of insulting Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka and stealing bikes.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Prosecutors requested lengthy prison sentences for the defendants in the \u201cCoordination Council case,\u201d including 19 years in prison both for Belarusian opposition leader Sviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja and her associate Pavie\u0142 \u0141atu\u0161ka, <span>BPN<\/span> reported. All defendants are being tried in absentia and are accused of a total of 12 criminal offences, such as high treason, conspiracy to seize power and organizing an extremist group.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t A court in Minsk resumed hearings in a case against Hienad\u017a Ma\u017eejka, a former journalist with <span>Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi<\/span>, charged with inciting hatred and insulting \u0141uka\u0161enka. The journalist has been in custody since October 2021 over an article he wrote on the 2021 shootout that left two people dead, IT engineer Andrej Zielcer and a KGB officer.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Other instances of persecution&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t On February 20, Alaksandr Kap\u0161ul, a member of the Rabo\u010dy Ruch (Workers&#8217; Movement), stopped the hunger strike that he had held for 51 days to protest violations of his rights in prison, <span>Na\u0161a Niva<\/span> reported. On February 17, a court in Homiel sentenced Kap\u0161ul to 15 years in prison and nine other defendants in the same case to 11 to 15 years on charges ranging from slander to high treason.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t A large online auction removed from sale several books that Belarusian authorities deem extremist, including popular history books by Viktor Suvorov and Vadzim Dzeru\u017eynski, the Prosecutor General&#8217;s Office reported.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t A young woman from Hrodna faces criminal charges over donations to opposition initiatives in 2020 and protest pictures in social media, Haradzienskaja Pravaabarona said. Police also confiscated her electronic devices.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Extremist content updates\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Authorities blacklisted a number of opposition social media pages as extremist content, including satirical and historical Telegram channels, Viasna said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t New political prisoners\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Belarusian human rights groups declared nine people political prisoners. Their charges range from extremism to libel against \u0141uka\u0161enka.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t As of February 28, human rights defenders identified at least 1,451 political prisoners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February 28, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on February 27. Arrests Police arrested Kry\u015bcina Maksimienka in Ma\u010duli\u0161\u010dy, Minsk region, Siarhiej Ja\u016dtuchovi\u010d in Dziar\u017eynsk, Minsk region, as well as several people in Fanipal, Dziar\u017eynsk district, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. They all are awaiting trial and may be facing charges [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-45887","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=\"February 28, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on February 27. 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New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on February 27. Arrests Police arrested Kry\u015bcina Maksimienka","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\/45887\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk","og_description":"February 28, BPN. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on February 27. 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