{"id":73718,"date":"2024-03-18T11:42:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T08:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"update-on-arrests-trials-politically-motivated-persecution-145","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>March 18, <em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on March 16 and 17 as harassment of dissenters and exiles continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arrests<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police arrested former political prisoner Pavie\u0142 Piasko\u016d in Ma\u0142adzie\u010dna, Minsk region, during one of his obligatory visits to the local police department, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. Earlier, he served five days in jail for allegedly breaking supervision rules set upon his release. Piasko\u016d had served four years and three months in prison and was released in late February. He was the first Belarusian protester given a lengthy prison sentence after the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hrodna police arrested a truck driver upon his return from Poland on protest-related charges, a pro-government source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trials<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Minsk man was convicted for allegedly insulting pro-Russian activist Volha Bondarava during failed parliamentary electoral campaign, she said in her Telegram channel. The verdict is unknown but the penalty for a similar offense may amount to 1,200 rubels in fines (about ($370).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other instances of persecution<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A police-linked Telegram channel has released a video of a raid on a Po\u0142ack home of exiled anarchist Raman Chali\u0142a\u016d and his mother Hajane Achcijan. Chali\u0142a\u016d left Belarus in 2019 fearing politically-motivated persecution, while his mother followed him three years later after being given three years of restricted freedom in an open-type correctional facility on protest-related charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of March 18, human rights defenders identified at least 1,410 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>March 18, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on March 16 and 17 as harassment of dissenters and exiles continued. Arrests Police arrested former political prisoner Pavie\u0142 Piasko\u016d in Ma\u0142adzie\u010dna, Minsk region, during one of his obligatory visits to the local police department, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported. Earlier, he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":71901,"template":"","rubric":[14],"class_list":["post-73718","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","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=\"March 18, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on March 16 and 17 as harassment of dissenters and exiles\" \/>\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\/73718\/\" \/>\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=\"March 18, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on March 16 and 17 as harassment of dissenters and exiles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/\" \/>\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 property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/peskov_spring.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"752\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\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\/73718\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/\"},\"headline\":\"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-18T08:42:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/\"},\"wordCount\":261,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/peskov_spring.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/\",\"name\":\"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/73718\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/peskov_spring.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-18T08:42:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"March 18, Pozirk. 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New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on March 16 and 17 as harassment of dissenters and exiles","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\/73718\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk","og_description":"March 18, Pozirk. 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