{"id":3993,"date":"2021-07-04T18:57:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T15:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d9lb3qyw8jhbr.cloudfront.net\/?p=3993"},"modified":"2021-07-04T18:57:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T15:57:03","slug":"review-of-the-fight-against-extremism-in-belarus-for-april-may-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d9lb3qyw8jhbr.cloudfront.net\/en\/review-of-the-fight-against-extremism-in-belarus-for-april-may-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of the fight against \u201cextremism\u201d in Belarus for April-May 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Human rights organization Human Constanta continues to collect information and analyze trends in the application of laws on countering \u201cextremism\u201d in Belarus from the standpoint of international human rights standards. In this review, we have collected new trends and practices in the application of anti-extremist laws over two months in connection with an increased number of important events that occurred in April and May 2021 (the previous review<\/a> covers the period from January to March 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the two months analyzed, anti-extremism laws have been amended to expand the term \u201cextremism\u201d (it now covers any acts of disagreement and dissent) and toughen the penalties for its manifestation. On May 23, 2021, after the forced landing of an Athens-Vilnius plane in Minsk, blogger Roman Protasevich, one of the first Belarusians included in the «list of terrorists» and former editor of the largest opposition Telegram channel, was detained. Prosecution of commentators on the Internet and trials of civil society activists continued, as well as other forms of repressions and retaliatory measures for expressing opinions. For the first time Belarusian authorities initiated a case against foreign politicians and fined the author’s for the way his signature looked in Mogilev. They also expanded the Republican List of Extremist Materials and confiscated the books of famous Belarusian writers for examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news: the list of terrorists has not been expanded in two months (see Human Constanta’s special review<\/a> on this topic), and one case for \u201cdistributing extremist materials\u201d was dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislative changes <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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On March 1, 2021, a new version of the Code of Administrative Offenses (hereinafter referred to as the CAO) <\/strong>entered into force. New administrative offenses were added, liability for a number of actions under «opposition» articles was increased. Besides the CAO, several other documents were amended during the spring session of the Parliament:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Law On the Countering of Extremism<\/em> has <\/strong>undergone major changes.A list of actors and forms of «extremist activity» has been extended, the List of Extremists<\/em> was introduced, and the liability for violating the law became tougher \u2013 more details about the amendments to this law can be found in the detailed review<\/a>;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n