{"id":56574,"date":"2023-12-20T12:49:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T09:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=56574"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"update-on-arrests-trials-politically-motivated-persecution-95","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>December 20, <em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 19 with unabated reprisals targeting online opposition activities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arrested and released<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police arrested four people in Homiel and one in Viciebsk for sharing opposition content, a pro-government Telegram channel said. The charges against them are unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two seamstresses working for the Elema clothing company were arrested in Minsk for having white-red-white national symbols at their workplace, a pro-government source said. In a police video, one of them admitted to following opposition content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three Minsk men are under arrest for online comments in a Telegram chat that allegedly insulted Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka, incited hatred and called for gross violation of public order, the Prosecutor General&#8217;s Office said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities released Julija Ka\u015bciu\u010denka after she served a one-year prison for criticizing \u0141uka\u0161enka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trials<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On December 4, a judge in Homiel jailed Ta\u0107ciana Hackova, head of the regional banking employees&#8217; union, for 15 days for sharing opposition content, the Homiel branch of the Viasna Human Rights Center said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alaksandar Maruk, A\u0142a Kuta and Anastasija Semianiakina were tried in the Hrodna region&#8217;s courts on similar charges, a Telegram channel monitoring politically-motivated persecution in Hrodna and the Hrodna region reported. The verdicts are unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Criminal proceedings<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A judge in Hrodna Regional Court sentenced nurse Alaksandra Kasko to 10 years in prison on eight criminal charges ranging from inciting officials to promoting extremism, the <em>Sudy, Zaderzhaniya. Grodno i Oblast<\/em> Telegram channel reported. She has been in custody since February following her return from Poland. Rights groups consider her a political prisoner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u010cas\u0142a\u016d Kananovi\u010d was given five years in a high-security prison for donating 1,200 rubles (about $380) to the Kastu\u015b Kalino\u016dski Regiment, a Belarusian volunteer unit fighting Russia in Ukraine, <em>Pozirk<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Supreme Court upheld a prison sentence against Ukrainian national Kateryna Brukhanova, the Prosecutor General&#8217;s Office said. In mid-October, a judge in Brest sentenced her to two and a half years for sharing videos of Russian military equipment en route to Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of December 20, human rights defenders identified at least 1,463 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>December 20, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 19 with unabated reprisals targeting online opposition activities.&nbsp; Arrested and released Police arrested four people in Homiel and one in Viciebsk for sharing opposition content, a pro-government Telegram channel said. The charges against them are unknown. Two seamstresses working for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-56574","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=\"December 20, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 19 with unabated reprisals targeting online\" \/>\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\/56574\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 20, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 19 with unabated reprisals targeting online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/\"},\"headline\":\"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-20T09:49:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/\"},\"wordCount\":374,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/\",\"name\":\"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-20T09:49:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 20, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 19 with unabated reprisals targeting online\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Pozirk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk","description":"December 20, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 19 with unabated reprisals targeting online","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\/56574\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk","og_description":"December 20, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 19 with unabated reprisals targeting online","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Pozirk_online","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/"},"headline":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution","datePublished":"2023-12-20T09:49:01+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/"},"wordCount":374,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/","name":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-12-20T09:49:01+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00","description":"December 20, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on December 19 with unabated reprisals targeting online","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/56574\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","name":"Pozirk","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization","name":"Pozirk","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Pozirk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/56574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"rubric","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rubric?post=56574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}