{"id":74681,"date":"2024-03-22T10:59:06","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T07:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/74681\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"update-on-arrests-trials-politically-motivated-persecution-148","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/74681\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>March 22, <em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on March 21 as authorities continued their crackdown on regime critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arrests<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Minsk police arrested Maksim Urbanovi\u010d, brother of Belarusian volunteer Dzianis Urbanovi\u010d who is fighting Russia in Ukraine, <em>Belsat<\/em> reported. He may face criminal charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A man was arrested for participating in protests after police officers identified him in a picture where he is carrying a large white-red-white flag, a pro-government Telegram channel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hrodna police arrested a man upon his return from Poland on charges of participating in 2020 postelection protests, a pro-government source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trials<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sierhij Mieljaniec, Christian preacher, poet and a father of seven, was jailed for 13 days for an alleged minor offense, Chry\u015bcijanskaja Vizija reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On March 1, a judge in Minsk jailed Alaksiej Skvar\u010de\u016dski for attaching five white-red-white balloons at a lamppost near his house, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Criminal proceedings<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Homiel Regional Court sentenced former journalist Andrej To\u0142\u010dyn to two years and six months in prison on charges of slandering Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka and promoting extremism, Radyjo Svaboda reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Extremist&#8221; list update<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On March 13, a judge in Brest branded a Ukrainian school textbook discussing Russian-Ukrainian war as &#8220;extremist&#8221; content, Viasna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Committee for State Security also blacklisted <em>Zdraviy smysl na Alibegova<\/em>, <em>Mo\u0142adzievy Nastup<\/em>, <em>BY_UA Politika: Belarusy v Ukraine<\/em> and <em>Aktsii ULTIMATUM<\/em> on Telegram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other blacklisted content includes reform.by and several opposition social media accounts, among them <em>Dysident BY<\/em>, <em>revolucioner<\/em>, <em>aleh. belarus.z.kieva<\/em>, <em>onlynewsbelarus<\/em>, <em>prezident.sveta<\/em> on TikTok; <em>bymedsol<\/em>, <em>bg.live_365<\/em> and <em>MovaNanova<\/em> on Instagram; <em>Aleksey Blinnikov<\/em> and <em>Amsterdamskaja Pakazucha<\/em> on Odnoklassniki, the information ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other instances of persecution<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prison authorities at Penal Colony No 22 in Ivacevi\u010dy, Brest region,&nbsp;banned&nbsp;inmates from receiving parcels containing fruit and vegetables, MAYDAYMog reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Law enforcers welded the door of the apartment belonging to exiled activist Alaksiej Jerachaviec, <em>ONT<\/em> TV channel reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A total of 27 Nobel Prize winners urged the European Union governments \u201cto take immediate measures to stop the brutal repression in Belarus,\u201d <em>The Independent<\/em> reported, citing their open letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of March 22, human rights defenders identified at least 1,411 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 22, Pozirk. New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on March 21 as authorities continued their crackdown on regime critics. Arrests Minsk police arrested Maksim Urbanovi\u010d, brother of Belarusian volunteer Dzianis Urbanovi\u010d who is fighting Russia in Ukraine, Belsat reported. He may face criminal charges. A man was arrested for participating in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[14],"class_list":["post-74681","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=\"March 22, Pozirk. 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New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on March 21 as authorities continued their crackdown on regime","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\/74681\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Update on arrests, trials, politically-motivated persecution | Pozirk","og_description":"March 22, Pozirk. 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