During the coverage period, the government continued to persecute media workers, opposition figures, bloggers, social media and messaging channel administrators, cultural figures, and ordinary internet users for their online activities.
Dozens of journalists and activists were arrested or sentenced for their independent reporting and analysis. Hundreds of people were jailed, and thousands of ordinary Belarusians were criminally and administratively punished for their internet-related activities.
Belarus held 1,410 political prisoners as of the end of May 2024, according to the Viasna Human Rights Center. In 2023, Belarus ranked first in Europe and third globally in terms of jailers of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The deaths of six political prisoners, including some who had been jailed for their online activities (see C7), have been attributed to the deplorable conditions and inhumane treatment experienced in Belarus’s prisons.
The authorities continue to stifle freedom of expression under the guise of combating alleged terrorism, extremism, and defamation.
During the coverage period new trends emerged, including the government prosecuting Belarusians for making online donations to independent organizations or for “extremist” materials found on their mobile phones during inspections.
Four years after the events of 2020, more than 40,000 Belarusians have been arrested on political grounds.
By the end of May 2024, at least 5,133 people had been convicted in politically motivated criminal cases, and 36,418 had been subjected to administrative prosecution.
In 2023, the government oversaw 6,386 arrests, 1,603 criminal convictions, and 4,466 administrative sentences.
In the first quarter of 2024, there were 987 arrests, 99 criminal convictions, and 1,602 administrative prosecutions.
The majority of these cases were related to online activities, including libel, defamation, and activities involving extremist groups and materials.
Most of the alleged crimes that the government has prosecuted since 2020 have been connected to internet-related activities. Three years after the 2020 protests, the government claimed that more than 16,000 cases related to extremist crimes had been opened and that more than 70 percent of these were committed online.
In 2024, the government raised the number of extremist-related crimes it claimed were committed since the protests to “about 19,000.”
A majority of the criminal convictions given since 2020, as well as a majority of those issued during the coverage period, involved online libel cases—defaming or insulting Lukashenka, a government official, or state symbols.
In 2023, more than 1,000 criminal cases were opened in Minsk alone over alleged insults against Lukashenka or state officials.
The political activist Ihar Lednik, who died in prison in February 2024, had been jailed for three years for defaming Lukashenka in a publication.
Similarly, of the almost 4,500 administrative penalties handed down in 2023, at least 3,091 involved “extremism.”
A vast majority of the materials that the government has declared extremist are internet resources. Since 2020, more than 5,300 Belarusians have been convicted of “distributing extremist materials,”
mostly for forwarding or reposting something. Even subscribing to prohibited materials is an administrative offence, subject to a fine, community service, up to 15 days in prison, and the confiscation of the device with the extremist material.
In May 2024, the government opened its first criminal case for reposting extremist material.
In the three years following the events of 2020, more than 670 journalists were arrested.
Though there were fewer journalists in the country to persecute during the coverage period, the Belarusian Association of Journalists reported that in 2023 there were 16 criminal and 16 administrative sentences meted out to media workers, and that 6 new criminal cases were initiated, a slight decline from the year before.
From January through May 2024, the government detained seven journalists and media workers, sentenced five in criminal cases and four in administrative cases, opened new cases against seven journalists, and conducted searches at eight personal premises.
By the end of May 2024, 35 journalists remained behind bars.
Each has been recognized as a political prisoner. PEN Belarus reported that cultural figures, who often carry out their work online, were the subjects of 76 criminal convictions, 79 new criminal cases, 143 administrative penalties, and 206 arbitrary detentions in 2023.
Their repression continued into 2024, with at least 19 criminal convictions, 34 new criminal cases, 29 administrative penalties, and 35 arbitrary detentions by the middle of May.
In August 2024, after the coverage period, journalists Ales Sabaleuski and Yauhen Hlushkou, who worked for the outlet 6tv.by, were sentenced to four years and three years in prison, respectively, for “participating in an extremist formation” (see C7).
In June 2024, after the coverage period, freelance journalist Alena Tsimashchuk was sentenced to five years in prison for discrediting the Republic of Belarus, inciting hostility or discord, and participating in an extremist formation. Her articles were largely apolitical and as of June 2024 the specific reason for her sentencing was unknown.
In April 2024, journalist and video blogger Aliaksandr Ihnatsiuk, who ran the local news site About Stolin, was sentenced to six years in prison under three articles of the criminal code, including slandering Lukashenka.
In March 2024, journalist and blogger Ihar Karnei was sentenced to three years in prison for “participating in an extremist group” under Article 361-1 of the criminal code.
Karnei was arrested in July 2023 and prosecuted for his online articles for the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which the authorities have labelled an extremist organization.”
In March 2024, former videographer Andrei Tolchyn was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for “promoting extremist activities” under Article 361-4 of the criminal code and “libeling Aliaksandr Lukashenka” under Article 367 of the criminal code. He had previously been arrested for his journalistic activity, and was indicted based on files the police found when they searched his home.
In April 2024, media worker Anastasia Matsiash was sentenced to two years in prison for “participating in an extremist formation.”
That same month, journalist Aliaksandr Marchanka was sentenced to three years in prison.
Earlier, in January 2024, photojournalist Aliaksandr Ziankou was sentenced to three years in prison for the same charge as Matsiash. In August 2023, Larysa Shchyrakova, a former journalist, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison under Article 369-1 of the criminal code for “discrediting Belarus.”
In July 2023, journalist Pavel Mazheika was sentenced to six years in prison under Article 361-4 of the criminal code, which addresses “facilitating extremist activities.”
Matsiash, Marchanka, Ziankou, Shchyrakova, and Mazheika were all associated with the Poland-based online television station Belsat TV, which the government has deemed an extremist group.
In December 2023, Aliaksandra Kasko, allegedly the administrator of several Telegram channels, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating eight articles of the criminal code, including “participating in an extremist formation,” “illegal actions with respect to personal data,” and insulting Lukashenka and other state officials. She was added to the government list of “terrorists.”
In November 2023, Aliaksandr Mantsevich, editor in chief of the online newspaper Rehijanalnaja Hazieta, was sentenced to four years in prison for “discrediting the Republic of Belarus” under Article 369-1 of the criminal code.
In July 2023, Yauhen Verkhavodkin, who oversaw a neighborhood Telegram channel, was sentenced to seven years in prison for participating in an extremist group and for “calling for actions aimed at causing harm to the national security” of Belarus, which is prohibited by Article 361 of the criminal code. He was also added to the government list of “terrorists.”
In June 2023, a court sentenced Yana Pinchuk to 12 years in prison for inciting social hatred, creating an extremist and terrorist group, calling for the disruption of the constitutional order, and harming national security by administering protest Telegram channels, including Vitebsk97%.
In May 2023, cultural activist Pavel Belavus was sentenced to 13 years in prison on four criminal charges, including treason. According to the government, Belavus was promoting Belarusian nationalism on social networks and websites, “the purpose of which was to change the state power in Belarus.”
In March 2023, a court sentenced media professionals Maryna Zolatava and Liudmila Chekina to 12 years in prison each for “inciting hatred” and “calling for sanctions” against Belarus. Zolatava was editor in chief of TUT.by, Belarus’s largest independent news website, and Chekina was its director general. TUT.by was closed down by the government and declared a “extremist organization” in 2021 and 2022 (see B1). Both Zolatava and Chekina had been detained since 2021, and Zolatava had been previously prosecuted in 2019.
In February 2023, the government held the trial of Stsiapan Putsila, Jan Rudzik, and Raman Pratasevich, the founders and editors of the Nexta online project, which oversees the country’s most popular Telegram channel and a popular YouTube channel. The defendants were charged under several criminal articles and were accused of committing at least 1,586 crimes. Only Pratasevich was in the country.
In May 2023, Pratasevich was sentenced to eight years in prison, while Putsila and Rudzik received terms of 20 and 19 years in absentia, respectively.
Later that month, Pratasevich was pardoned by the government.
In March 2023, Valeryia Kastsiuhova, founder and editor of the think tank Nashe Mneniye (Our Opinion), editor of the online Belarusian Yearbook, and head of the Belarus in Focus online think tank, was convicted of “conspiring to seize state power, calling for actions aimed at harming national security, and incitement to hatred,” and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Human rights defenders suggested that the verdict was designed to intimidate the think tank community.
Detained in 2021, journalist Andrzej Poczobut was charged with “inciting hatred” and “calling for sanctions” against Belarus. He is a prominent member of the Polish minority in Belarus. In February 2023, Poczobut was sentenced to eight years in prison.
In February 2023, former security official Alexander Sumar was sentenced to nine years in prison for administering the “Long Live Luninets!” Telegram channel.
In January 2023, Viktor Savashevich was sentenced to 11 years in prison for creating and overseeing the Telegram channel “23.34”, which posted information about Belarusian judges.
Thousands of ordinary users also received prison terms for their online activities. The KGB has included many of those convicted on its list of those carrying out “terrorist activities.” During the coverage period, a new trend emerged in which prosecutions for online activities included multiple defendants.
During the coverage period, the government increased its prosecution of Belarusians who had made online donations to independent organizations or for activities that the government has labelled “extremist” or “terrorist.” This included donations to online “solidarity initiatives” such as BYSOL and BY_help, as well as opposition groups operating online, like the media group MotolkoHelp, BYPOL, and the Cyber Partisans (see B8 and C8). In the first quarter of 2024, the Ministry of Internal Affairs targeted 260 people who made such donations.
By the end of May 2024, 77 individuals had been convicted of donating to extremist organizations or financing allegedly extremist or terrorist activities.
The previous year, in 2023, more than 80 criminal cases on the financing of “extremist” and “terrorist” activities were opened,
and 17 on “financing an extremist formation” were initiated. To avoid criminal prosecution, individuals are required to participate in “active repentance” by signing a confession and making a “voluntary donation” (often many times the size of the original donation) to a state organization.
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee reported that “engaging in systematic charitable activities can now be equated with treason against the state.”
Mikalai Vasilevich, for example, was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison in September 2023 for making at least 54 donations that “financed” the activities of an “extremist formation” (Article 361-2 of the criminal code) and “terrorist activities” (Article 290-1 of the criminal code).
Incarcerated for three years in August 2023 for “financing extremist activities,” Vadzim Khrasko died in prison in January 2024.
The authorities also began prosecuting Belarusians for receiving in-kind support organized online. In January 2024, the government declared INeedHelpBY, a charity that delivered groceries to the families of current and former political prisoners via online shopping (see B8), to be an “extremist” organization. By the end of the following month, at least 287 Belarusians had been prosecuted, including under Article 24.15 of the administrative code, which addresses “the use of foreign gratuitous aid to carry out terrorist and other extremist activities or other actions prohibited by law.” These cases represented the first time this article has been used in Belarus.
As the Russian government’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has persisted, Belarusians have continued to be prosecuted for different acts of resistance. Since February 2022, at least 1,671 Belarusians have been detained and 91 convicted for their antiwar position.
Much of the antiwar resistance in Belarus takes place online. As of October 2023, at least 37 individuals had been convicted of sharing photos or videos of Russian military equipment in Belarus with independent media outlets and social media and messaging channels, 38 had been prosecuted for condemning Russian aggression or expressing pro-Ukrainian sentiment online, and 14 were convicted for donating online to Belarusian volunteers in the war.
In November 2023, Dzmitryi Mastavy, an IT professional, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “high treason” and “promoting extremist activities” after livestreaming military activities at a Belarusian airfield.
During the coverage period, thousands of ordinary Belarusians were persecuted criminally and administratively for their online activities, including doxing, defamation, and “extremism.” In 2023, 691 persons were criminally convicted of defaming Lukashenka.
That same year, there were 2,791 administrative charges brought against Belarusians for “distributing extremist materials,” including by reposting, forwarding, subscribing to, and liking “extremist materials.”
During the reporting period, the government continued to launch “special proceedings,” criminal processes carried out in absentia, against critical Belarusian voices living abroad. From 2022 to May 2024, the government launched 40 criminal cases against Belarusians living outside of the country.
A number of these cases involved online activities. For example, the authorities launched criminal cases against the bloggers Andrei and Olga Pauk, journalist Uladzimir Klimanovich, media manager Pavel Marynich, digital platform creator Pavel Liber, website editor Ihar Kazmerchak, and others. Marynich, the head of the Malanka Media portal, was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison in August 2023.