{"id":82468,"date":"2024-04-27T10:12:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-27T07:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/82468\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"reprisals-target-dissenters-and-their-online-activities","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/82468\/","title":{"rendered":"Reprisals target dissenters and their online activities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 27, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> New cases of politically-motivated persecution were documented in Belarus on April 26 as rights groups reported harassment of dissenters linked to critical social media posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uiza Velisievi\u010d was tried in Hrodna for sharing opposition content, and Valeryja \u0141ata\u0161, for receiving foreign aid, the Pravo Imeyut <\/em>Telegram channel said. Authorities did not disclose the verdicts. \u0141ata\u0161\u2019s husband Michai\u0142 Judzin is serving a four-year prison term in a politically-motivated case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, trials on charges of sharing opposition content took place across the Hrodna region with fines ranging from 800 ($247) to 1,200 rubels ($370), the same channel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dzianis Nosa\u016d, a journalist with the private weekly Vecherniy Bobruisk<\/em> from the Mahilo\u016d region, had served 15 days in jail on similar charges, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protest-related cases<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A judge in Minsk fined opposition activist Nina Bahinskaja 2,400 rubels (about $740) for a small white-red-white flag found during the search of her apartment, Belsat<\/em> reported. Earlier, she had been fined 2,000 rubels ($618) for wearing a white-red-white badge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former catholic.by<\/em> journalist Aksana Ju\u010dkavi\u010d was given three years of restricted freedom in home confinement on protest-related charges, Chry\u015bcijanskaja Vizija reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, pro-government sources also reported two arrests linked to participating in 2020 postelection protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Extremist” designations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities added 14 people to the list of persons \u201cinvolved in extremist activities,\u201d the interior ministry said. Eight of them are in prison, including three political prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The information ministry updated the list of content deemed extremist in Belarus, blacklisting several social media accounts, including the YouTube channel and social media of playwright Andrej Kurei\u010dyk and doctorsby.com<\/em> project along with its social media pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The updated list also features the Telegram channel of the Association of Belarusian Business Abroad (ABBA); vikingmma<\/em>, pratest_vulic<\/em> and chali_night<\/em> on Instagram; rasstrigaby<\/em>, thisminsk<\/em> and news.create<\/em> on TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A collection of works by prominent 19th-century writer Vincent Dunin-Marcinkievi\u010d was the first item deleted from the official register of \u201cextremist\u201d content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of April 27, human rights defenders identified at least 1,397 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\n\n\n

\n\n
\n \"\"