{"id":69296,"date":"2024-02-24T11:41:17","date_gmt":"2024-02-24T08:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=69296"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"update-on-arrests-trials-politically-motivated-persecution-133","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/69296\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>February 24, <em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on February 23 as authorities continued punishing dissident online activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arrests<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police arrested six persons in Pietryka\u016d and \u017dytkavi\u010dy, Homiel region, for following opposition content, <em>Mediazona<\/em> reported. One of them is D\u017amitryj Jara\u0161enia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Mahilo\u016d man is under arrest for posting online comments, a pro-government source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Protestant pastor Alaksandar Zarecki was arrested in Nova\u0142ukoml, Viciebsk region, for praying for Ukraine, Chry\u015bcijanskaja Vizija reported. Last spring, Zarecki had served a cumulative jail term of 30 days for online comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A man from S\u0142onim, Hrodna region, is under arrest for comments on the Telegram messaging app, a pro-government source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hrodna police arrested a local man for sharing opposition content, another pro-government source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New criminal charges<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A man from the Brest region was accused of insulting Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka and public officials, according to a pro-government source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trials<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities did not release Ihar Kaval\u010duk, a priest from Raha\u010do\u016d, Homiel region, after he had served 15 days in jail for sharing opposition content, Chry\u015bcijanskaja Vizija said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A judge in Lida, Hrodna region, jailed Maryna Soka\u0142 for the second time for receiving foreign aid, the Pravo imeyut initiative reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maksim Vu\u015bko from Navapo\u0142ack, Viciebsk region, was given seven days in jail for a picture he posted on social media, the Viciebsk branch of the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hrodna region&#8217;s courts heard cases against Alaksiej Homan, Iryna Kniha, U\u0142adzimir \u0160matko, D\u017amitryj Na\u016dharodski, accused of sharing opposition content, <em>Pravo Imeyut<\/em> reported. Authorities have not disclosed the verdicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Extremist&#8221; list update<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The interior ministry blacklisted another 30 people as persons &#8220;involved in extremist activities,&#8221; according to its website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On February 19, a judge in Minsk branded the social media of exiled economic expert Siarhiej \u010ca\u0142y as &#8220;extremist&#8221; content. Other blacklisted content includes the <em>Belarusy i Co v Estoniii 97% <\/em>Telegram channel, <em>Belarus za peremeny<\/em> Odnoklassniki page as well as <em>EIZ 2.0<\/em>, <em>\u0161lach da pieramohi<\/em>, and <em>wtzmag<\/em> TikTok accounts, the information ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other instances of persecution<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At least 1,671 people have been arrested in Belarus for their anti-war stance since the start of the war in Ukraine, Viasna reported.&nbsp; Of them, 94 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to 23 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jailed opposition activist U\u0142adzimir Hundar, 64, has been held in a single cell for five months, the Brest branch of Viasna said. The man is serving a 20-year prison term in a politically-motivated case. He has a disability and is missing one leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belarusian authorities opened special proceedings against Ja\u016dhien Prudnika\u016d, Volha Prudnikava, Ludmi\u0142a Arastovi\u010d, Anatol Astro\u016dski, Alaksandar Ciarluk, Iryna Sta\u0142oka, Hienad\u017a Hutar, Viktar Puzan and Vital Pachom\u010dyk on charges of gross violations of public order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of February 24, human rights defenders identified at least 1,419 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>February 24, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on February 23 as authorities continued punishing dissident online activities. Arrests Police arrested six persons in Pietryka\u016d and \u017dytkavi\u010dy, Homiel region, for following opposition content, Mediazona reported. One of them is D\u017amitryj Jara\u0161enia. A Mahilo\u016d man is under arrest for posting online comments, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-69296","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 24, Pozirk. 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New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on February 23 as authorities continued punishing dissident","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\/69296\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk","og_description":"February 24, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on February 23 as authorities continued punishing dissident","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/69296\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-03-10T12:05:06+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\/69296\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/69296\/"},"headline":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution","datePublished":"2024-02-24T08:41:17+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/69296\/"},"wordCount":499,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/69296\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/69296\/","name":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-02-24T08:41:17+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06+00:00","description":"February 24, Pozirk. 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