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The review reflects the main trends in the use of markers \u201cextremism\u201d and \u201cterrorism\u201d in Belarus from April to June 2023. We investigate the publications of state media, pro-government Telegram channels, independent media, and human rights organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This review does not cover the analysis of the practice of using separately \u201cprotest\u201d (\u201cmass riots,\u201d \u201cactions grossly violating public order\u201d) and most \u201cdefamation\u201d (crimes related to \u201cinsult\u201d and \u201cslander\u201d against representatives of the regime) articles of the Criminal Code, which are also part of the \u201canti-extremist\u201d legislation.<\/em> Statistics are formed almost entirely on the basis of reports from open sources. The practice of applying \u201canti-extremist\u201d legislation is wider than the cases documented in the report. Repression under the marker of \u201cfighting extremism\u201d is ubiquitous in Belarus \u2013 government agencies do not publicly report most cases, human rights activists become aware of many cases of persecution only after a person is included in the \u201cextremist\u201d or \u201cterrorist\u201d list. In addition, the interpretation of the \u201canti-extremist\u201d legislation de facto by the authorities is so arbitrary that it is often difficult to understand whether the authorities consider a particular crime to be a manifestation of \u201cextremism\u201d or not.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In three months, we documented at least 163 new criminal cases and 44 verdicts on \u201cextremist\u201d grounds, not counting cases related to \u201cprotests\u201d and \u201cinsults\u201d (in the past period \u2013 201 new criminal cases and 58 verdicts). We also know about at least 247 cases of administrative offenses (in the previous period \u2013 123 cases) from public news sources, and according to the state bank of court decisions, there are much more such cases \u2013 770 cases <\/strong>(in the previous period \u2013 535 cases). During the analyzed period, the maximum recorded punishment for \u201cextremism\u201d is 25 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legislators plan to introduce<\/a> administrative liability for \u201cpropaganda of non-traditional sexual relations, gender reassignment, pedophilia and child-free.\u201d A law is also being actively considered, expanding the possibilities for closing down print media that are objectionable to the authorities. Amendments are being introduced to the Criminal Code that will make it possible to judge dead people for crimes of an international legal nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first time, a court recognized as \u201cinciting enmity\u201d a human rights assessment that described human rights violations by security forces officers. There is an increase in the attention of the security forces to minors who leave comments of oppositional content is recorded. The period was marked by a number of criminal cases for hanging the Belarusian and Ukrainian national flags in public places: if earlier the security forces considered such actions an administrative offense, then in this period such actions were already interpreted as \u201caiding extremist activity.\u201d The propagandists reported on a number of planned \u201cterror attacks\u201d organized under the auspices of the Ukrainian special services. Many accused of \u201cfailed\u201d acts of terrorism, despite the absence of any harm to society, may face the death penalty. For the first time in the history of observations, charges were filed under article 126 of the Criminal Code \u201cAn act of international terrorism,\u201d which refers to crimes against the peace and security of mankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More harsh sentences in absentia were handed down against political activists abroad. The period was marked by another case of a \u201cviolent conspiracy to seize power,\u201d involving 18 defendants at the same time, including entire families. Many of them received terms of imprisonment close to the maximum possible. Several sentences were handed down against people who collaborated with initiatives involved in the evacuation of persecuted Belarusians abroad. New law enforcement agencies have joined in a large-scale campaign to force people who donated to solidarity funds to compensate for the damage for their \u201cdeeds\u201d: there are cases when security forces ask to transfer to state accounts an amount that exceeds the amount donated a hundred times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the eve of Victory Day, in May, the number of detainees for \u201cdemonstration of Nazi symbols\u201d under Article 19.10 of the Code of Administrative Offenses increased, June was also marked by mass detentions of students under this article. In general, the number of cases of \u201cextremist reposts\u201d in the first half of 2023 was almost 1.7 times higher than the number of such cases for the same period in 2022. There has been an increase in the number of trials in which people are tried simultaneously for \u201cunauthorized picketing\u201d and \u201cdistribution of extremist materials\u201d in order to increase the term of punishment. The analyzed period was marked by a sharp increase in the number of \u201craids\u201d of security forces in regional cities, accompanied by mass arbitrary detentions, as well as an increase in the number of cases of detentions after screening phones, which are regularly carried out at the border and even in public transport. The period was marked by mass detentions for \u201creposting\u201d and subsequent dismissals of clergy and teachers. In addition to arrests, fines continued to be used to punish people for reposting, which in some cases could reach several thousand dollars. It is known about the case of confiscation of a car in which \u201cforbidden\u201d leaflets were stored: the court recognized it as \u201ca tool for committing an offense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The security forces began to more actively recognize opposition pages on the Odnoklassniki social network and Internet resources of musical groups that released songs with protest overtones as \u201cextremist materials.\u201d Resources about the child-free ideology and the youth subculture of PMC Redan were also included on the list of \u201cbanned\u201d materials. The list of \u201cextremist formations\u201d was replenished with charitable and educational organizations. Websites that covered Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion were blocked on \u201cextremist\u201d grounds. A publishing house that published a book objectionable to the authorities was deprived of its license, and the domain name was taken away from one of the regional media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 5, 2023, government publications reported<\/a> that representatives of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries at a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Council at the Anti-Terrorism Center of the CIS Member States discussed the improvement of \u201canti-extremist\u201d and \u201canti-terrorist\u201d activities. At the event, representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan discussed methods to counter the spread of \u201cradical ideology and the involvement of citizens in terrorist and extremist activities, including through the Internet.\u201d The meeting also emphasized \u201cthe importance of timely exchange of information on the forms and methods of illegal activities in the Internet space, positive national practices.\u201d The holding of such events shows that \u201canti-extremist\u201d legislation continues to be used as a tool to achieve political goals not only by the Belarusian regime, but also by non-democratic regimes among other CIS countries, and in close cooperation with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 31, 2023, the deputies of the House of Representatives adopted in the first reading<\/a> the draft law \u201cOn Amending the Law \u00ab\u200eOn Publishing\u00bb,\u201d which expands the list of grounds for re-registration of publishers and manufacturers of printed publications, as well as the list of grounds for suspension and termination of the certificate of state registration of publishers and print distributors. Minister of Information Vladimir Pertsov noted that the changes \u201c\u200eare aimed at preventing the spread of immoral, extremist and destructive literature in the country’s book market, as well as \u201c\u200eexpand the tools for responding to destructive actions against the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On June 15, 2023, the deputies of the House of Representatives considered in two readings<\/a> the draft law \u201cOn Amending the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Belarus,\u201d correcting Article 29 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The changes will make it possible to initiate criminal proceedings against dead persons for an aggressive war, an act of international terrorism, genocide, ecocide, crimes against the security of mankind, and crimes related to violations of international humanitarian law. The authorities conducting the criminal process will be obliged to take measures to search for the relatives of the deceased accused so that they can become his representatives; a lawyer will also represent deceased defendants. These norms were adopted in the light of the continuation of the investigation into the case of the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Second World War, the investigation of which the Prosecutor General’s Office has been conducting for more than two year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On June 19, 2023, it became known that Alexander Lukashenko supported the initiatives of the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office to work out issues related to establishing administrative responsibility for \u201cpropaganda of non-traditional sexual relations, gender reassignment, pedophilia and child-free\u201d (in December 2022, similar legislation was adopted<\/a> in Russia). Anzhelika Kurchak, head of the Department of the General Prosecutor’s Office, said<\/a> that these phenomena and institutions pose a \u201cthreat to national security.\u201d Also, some resources about the child-free ideology were recognized as \u201cextremist materials\u201d (read more in the relevant section of the review and the joint statement of human rights organizations<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The analyzed period was marked by the continuation of repressions against people accused of having links with the Kalinovsky Regiment, which is part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). With regard to potential volunteers and people who maintain contact with members of the Regiment, the security forces initiate cases under Article 361-3 of the Criminal Code (\u201c\u200eparticipation on the territory of a foreign state in an armed formation or armed conflict, military operations, recruitment or training of persons for such participation\u201d). The article provides for a maximum sanction of up to 5 years in prison. On May 16, 2023, the former collector of Belgazprombank and ex-special forces officer Yan Popkovich was sentenced<\/a> to 4 years in prison under Articles 342 and 361-3 of the Criminal Code. Previously, several stories on state television had portrayed Yan as a mercenary about to go to fight in Ukraine. As evidence of Yan’s guilt, only his personal correspondence with friends, who, according to the investigation, served in the Regiment, was voiced. Also on June 16, 2023, the Gomel Regional Court sentenced<\/a> Anastasia Petrochenko to 3 years in prison for a donate to the Regiment under article 361-2 of the Criminal Code (\u201cfinancing of extremist activities\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is known about a number of new criminal cases related to Belarusian units in Ukraine:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 18, 2023, the Investigative Committee (IC) announced<\/a> the completion of the investigation against the 29-year-old resident of Mosty. According to investigators, the man repeatedly posted videos on social networks with calls to join the Regiment, clarified information in the Regiment’s chatbot about the possibility of joining, and also repeatedly clarified information on the Internet about the uniforms of the Ukrainian military, their salary, about the conversion of funds from Ukrainian hryvnia to Belarusian ruble. The IC claims that the motives for committing the \u201ccrime\u201d were the financial aspect and the desire to become popular;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On June 3, 2023, a resident of Lida was detained<\/a>, who, according to the published correspondence, expressed a desire to join the Belarusian Regiment \u201cPahonia,\u201d also a part of the AFU;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf Also in June, a resident of Krichev was detained<\/a>: according to Mayday, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) are trying to link his comments on social networks with the activities of the Regiment, in particular, to find traces of correspondence with its representatives and \u201cbring\u201d him under the article on mercenarism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The security forces continued to put pressure<\/a> on the relatives of the Regiment members. So, on April 1, 2023, it became known that the security forces came with a search to the mother and aunt of the former Regiment fighter and activist Alexander Streltsov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The practice of criminal prosecution for \u201cinciting national enmity\u201d (Article 130 of the Criminal Code) continues against people who criticize the actions of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine on the Internet, as well as leaving negative comments about Russian military personnel or about Russians in general. At least 16 arrests have been reported under this article for harshly critical comments on social media:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf a man was detained<\/a> for writing 3,000 comments, the last of which, according to the security forces, were \u201caimed at inciting enmity against the backdrop of the Ukrainian conflict.\u201d In particular, he published links to resources about disinformation from Russian propaganda, and also allegedly called Russian soldiers \u201cfiends;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf Minsk resident Nikolai Melnik was detained<\/a> for critical comments, including \u201cI agree, Russian Nazis are vile! Hang them all and burn them!\u201d and \u201cyou need to meet this bio-garbage with shit on a shovel;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf singer Patricia Svitina was detained<\/a> for leaving \u201cnegative messages\u201d about the security forces; about \u201ca special operation that is being carried out on the territory of Ukraine\u201d and \u201cincited enmity and discord between the Slavic peoples.\u201d In one of the comments, the singer in Belarusian and Ukrainian speaks out against the use of the territory of Belarus for aggression against Ukraine; in another comment, she asks those who \u201csupport Russia, or rather Putin\u201d to unsubscribe from her;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf a programmer from Brest was detained<\/a> for commenting \u201cI\u2019ll shoot an officer when they give me a gun, what\u2019s the difference from whose bullet to die?\u201d in the context of possible mobilization in Belarus to participate in the war in Ukraine, and also mentioned that \u201cRussia has become the curse of the whole world\u201d and called Russian soldiers \u201coccupiers;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf an employee of the Evroopt grocery store was detained<\/a> for comments regarding the war in Ukraine, while the security forces accuse him not only of comments about the Russian and Belarusian military, but also negative attitudes towards food products of these countries;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf the man was detained<\/a> for harsh comments about the Belarusian security forces, as well as for calling the Russian military \u201cfascists\u201d and \u201cbastards\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf the man was detained<\/a> for calling for resistance to the police, he left comments: \u201cWe again will go out to a \u00ab\u200epeaceful protest\u00bb and get beaten? \u2026 If so, then we are no better than Russians!\u201d and \u201cget ready to go outside and beat the cops, or sit at home and wait for Ukrainian HIMARS shells to fly into your apartment!;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf tattoo artist Ilya Akishev was detained<\/a> for his anti-war work, including the tattoo \u201cRussian warship, go f**k yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 sentence was recorded under this article for comments in the context of the war. On March 31, 2023, the Grodno Regional Court sentenced<\/a> 46-year-old Oleg Zavadsky to 3.5 years in prison for a number of harsh comments about the military personnel of Russia and Belarus, including the comment \u201cRussian invaders participating in the forcible seizure of foreign state territory by military force.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Detentions continued for criticizing the authorities, being negative towards Russians, and supporting Ukraine on online chatroulette (a website that allows you to chat with random users via video). The security forces continued to detain people based on videos of pro-government bloggers, including Yuriy Komar, who, posing as a Ukrainian, searches chatroulette for people who criticize the Belarusian authorities and support Ukraine, and then provokes them into harsh statements. At least 3 arrests are known<\/a> in this connection \u2013 for example, two men<\/a> who, in a conversation with bloggers, said they would support the entry of the Kalinovsky Regiment into Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Detentions of participants in the initiative \u201cUnion of the Belarusian National Shield,\u201d recognized as an \u201cextremist formation\u201d continue (in November 2022, 6 defendants in this case were detained<\/a>). Two minors were additionally detained in this case \u2013 one of the alleged administrators of the initiative’s Telegram chat, who is accused<\/a> of \u201ccampaigning for terrorism,\u201d as well as a chat participant<\/a> who disseminated opposition information in the context of the war in Ukraine. The security forces also stated<\/a> that they had identified the main organizer of the initiative, who is in Poland and \u201cinvolves minors in crimes.\u201d According to the investigation<\/a>, he \u201coffered the minor to join the closed Telegram community, where it was supposed to recruit Belarusians to assist extremists,\u201d after which other people began to join the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 22, 2023, the IC announced<\/a> the completion of the investigation in this case, charges were brought against the defendants under articles 130, 361-1 and 361-4 of the Criminal Code. According to the investigation, the chat participants \u201cspread false information about the involvement of the Republic of Belarus in a special military operation conducted by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine,\u201d \u201c\u200eurged to attack police officers and take away their weapons, stop military equipment,\u201d and also \u201c\u200eposted information with calls to damage the railway track and instructions for making Molotov cocktails.\u201d On June 29, 2023, the trial of 4 defendants in this case began.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Courts continue to issue sentences for sending photographs of military equipment to \u201cextremist\u201d Telegram channels that specialize in monitoring military activity in Belarus (for example, \u201cBelaruski Gayun\u201d). Charges for such actions are brought under Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (\u201caiding extremist activity\u201d). The maximum sanction under this article is 7 years in prison. The following sentences were recorded in this regard:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 3, 2023, the Mogilev Regional Court sentenced<\/a> Vladislav Popov to 2 years in prison for taking photos and videos of military equipment, servicemen and a military airfield in Bobruisk;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 12, 2023, a resident of Orsha, Yaroslav Kazakevich, was sentenced<\/a> to the same punishment for a video at the railway station in Orsha, which showed a trainload of Russian tanks;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 10, 2023, the Brest Regional Court sentenced<\/a> a 31-year-old resident of Baranovichi Anastasia Podgaiskaya to 3 years of \u201chome chemistry\u201d for repeatedly sending information to \u201cextremist\u201d Telegram channels. According to the case file, the information she sent, contained information about the situation in the regions of Russia and Belarus, as well as about planned activities at joint military training grounds. So, the woman sent a screenshot of messages from the parent chat with a warning about military exercises near Baranovichi. Also on the day of the incident with the explosion on the Crimean bridge, she sent a screenshot from the chat of test engineers, which shows the reaction to the incident of Russian chat participants with the caption \u201cI am studying here to become a tester. Even here, after the blast, it\u2019s restless.\u201d The fact of sending a photograph showing a janitor leaning his work tools on one of the cars in the yard was also included in the case;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On May 4, 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> Gennady Drozdov, 64-year-old ex-head of the Pagonya creative community, to 3 years in prison under Articles 342 and 361-4 of the Criminal Code. The essence of the accusations of \u201cfacilitating extremist activities\u201d is unknown \u2013 it is only known that the attention of the security forces was attracted by his trip to Ukraine, and his joint photos with the Ukrainian military were also found on the phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In total, at least 6 arrests were recorded under this article in the context of the war in Ukraine. For example, on April 8, 2023, the IC announced<\/a> the detention of Ruslan Rebkovets, a resident of Osipovichi, who had previously been detained by employees of the State Security Committee (KGB) at his workplace. The man is charged with sending to the DVIZ public a 12-second video of wagons with military equipment, which he filmed from a passing passenger train. On May 14, 2023, a resident of Brest was detained, who sent<\/a> a video of a military convoy to the Real Belarus Telegram channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tendency to interpret actions to send information about military objects not only as \u201caiding extremist activity,\u201d but also as \u201chigh treason\u201d (Article 356 of the Criminal Code) continued. Usually, more severe charges are brought if, according to the security forces, the information was passed directly to Ukrainian agencies. So, on the air of the state channel ONT<\/a> on April 4, 2023, information was announced about the detention of Dmitry Mostovoy, an IT specialist from Sennitsa, who was charged under articles 356 and 361-4 of the Criminal Code. Dmitry is accused of setting up an online video broadcast of the landing of military aircraft at the airfield in Machulishchi: according to the security forces, he launched the broadcast on his daughter’s laptop via a Skype video call. The same story mentions the detention of Andrei Shmai, a native of Ukraine, who worked in the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, on charges of \u201cundercover activity\u201d (Article 358-1 of the Criminal Code): according to the ONT, he sent information about the work of the department to his younger brother, deputy commander of the department \u201cNorth\u201d on operational issues in Chernigov, who requested information \u201con measures to strengthen regional executive committees\u201d and asked to be informed \u201cif the situation changes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 6, 2023, the Minsk City Court convicted<\/a> five residents of Minsk who, in September 2022, hung large national flags of Belarus and Ukraine on the facade of a house on a busy street in Minsk. Denis Vorozov, Olga Terekh, Ekaterina Zaretskaya and her spouse Vyacheslav Pantyushenko were sentenced to 5 years in prison, and Vladimir Lavor to 4 years. Earlier, the security forces recognized their private chat in the Zello app, where people discussed the organization of the action, as an \u201cextremist formation,\u201d while it is obvious that the chat was recognized as \u201cextremist\u201d only to create a formal reason to punish people for their civic position. The security forces interpreted the direct actions to hang the flag as \u201caiding extremist activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 17, 2023, the Investigative Committee announced<\/a> the completion of an investigation against six 36-year-old residents of Minsk, who in October 2022 hung out the national flags of Belarus (in the reports of the IC it appears as \u201ccollaborationist\u201d) and Ukraine on power lines. According to the investigation, one of the men asked a familiar seamstress to make flags, and during one of the feasts, the defendants decided to hang these flags for all to see. At the same time, it is known<\/a> that only two people were directly involved in the hanging, the rest only watched what was happening. These actions were interpreted by the security forces as \u201cmalicious hooliganism\u201d (Article 339 of the Criminal Code) and \u201cainding extremist activity.\u201d In this case, the crime of \u201cfacilitating extremism\u201d included the fact of posting information about the rally in opposition resources \u2013 the security forces considered that the transfer of information about the rally promotes the \u201cextremist\u201d agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These cases demonstrate the tightening of enforcement of \u201canti-extremist\u201d legislation over time. So, if in 2020-2021 hanging opposition symbols on buildings and windows was interpreted as \u201cunauthorized picketing\u201d and was punishable by administrative arrest or a fine, then in 2022-2023 identical acts began to be investigated as part of criminal cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On June 28, 2023, according to the decisions of the prosecutor of the Vitebsk region, access<\/a> to the Internet resources \u201cglavred.info,\u201d \u201cspektr.press,\u201d \u201chromadske.ua,\u201d \u201cnews.online.ua,\u201d \u201ctribun.com.ua\u201d was blocked. According to the department, \u201cthe portals posted information of an extremist nature, prompting citizens to oppose the state authorities of the Republic of Belarus in connection with the situation regarding the Wagner PMC, and also \u201cinaccurate information discrediting the President of the Republic of Belarus was reported.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Viasna Human Rights Center (Viasna Human Rights Center), from 2020 to February 2023, at least 3,650 people were convicted for \u201cpolitical reasons.\u201d<\/a> Most of these cases are being investigated under the \u201cextremist\u201d articles of the Criminal Code. At the same time, human rights activists do not know about acquittals in such cases. Also, Prosecutor General Andrei Shved said<\/a> that the number of applications to the commission for the return of \u201cpolitical emigrants\u201d exceeded 70 applications, some of which have already been decided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Courts continued to hand down harsh sentences for passing information about the places of residence and phone numbers of civil servants and security forces to the Black Book of Belarus (BBB), an initiative dedicated to the deanonymization of government officials accused of human rights violations. Most of the accusations of \u201cleaks\u201d include two articles at the same time \u2013 article 130 (\u201cincitement of enmity\u201d), as well as the \u201cnon-extremist\u201d article 203-1 of the Criminal Code (\u201cillegal actions in relation to information about private life and personal data\u201d). The prosecutor of the Minsk region Yury Shchetko said<\/a> that according to the results of monitoring \u201cdestructive channels\u201d in 2022 and 2023, more than 200 facts of posting information \u201con the destabilization of the sociopolitical and socio-economic situation, information about the private life of prosecutors, employees of other law enforcement and state bodies and organizations were found,\u201d on the basis of which 183 criminal cases were initiated in the Minsk region alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are aware of the following court hearings:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 13, 2023, the Gomel Regional Court sentenced<\/a> Vladislav Kupriyanov, a resident of Mogilev, to 5 years in prison;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 21, 2023, human rights activists learned that at the end of 2022, the Mogilev Regional Court sentenced<\/a> former district inspector Oleg Zubovich to 6 years in prison for passing data on former colleagues to the BBB;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On May 11, 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> lawyer Anastasia Lazarenko to 6 years in prison: according to the investigation, while working as a lawyer, Anastasia allegedly \u201ccontacted representatives of the BBB and gave them information about two police officers,\u201d whose personal data appeared in one of the cases, in which she took part as a defender;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On May 24, 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> former accountant of the Minsk Electromechanical Plant Anna Kornienko to 5 years in prison;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On June 2, 2023, the Brest Regional Court sentenced Pavel Petruchenya<\/a>, an employee of an IT company, to 6 years in prison. Earlier, in a propaganda story, it was said that he worked in the Security Department of the Brest Region as a leading electronic engineer in 2013-2018, during which he gained access to the personal data of employees, and in 2020 sent data (surnames and phone numbers) of at least 39 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the BBB. The defendant himself claimed that he obtained the personal data of the employees through a telephone directory;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On June 16, 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> Svetlana Bychkovskaya, a former employee of the \u201cOne Window\u201d Service (works with administrative procedures for citizens’ appeals), to 5.5 years in prison;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On June 23, 2023, information appeared that in March 2023, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced<\/a> political prisoner lawyer and former employee of the prosecutor’s office Natalia Lashch to 6 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the analyzed period, law enforcers continued to detain people in the BBB case, and both people who had access to entire databases and disseminated information from them and people who once passed information about law enforcers they knew (a total of at least 7 detentions are known) were prosecuted. It is known about the detention of an employee of Priorbank Lyudmila Sakovich<\/a>, legal adviser of the agricultural production cooperative Vladimir Yakubashko<\/a> (for \u201cleaking\u201d the data of the OMON and criminal investigation officers), an IT specialist of the EPAM company<\/a> (\u201cleaked\u201d the data of employees of internal affairs bodies he knew), as well as a man who passed information about a familiar presenter<\/a> on the state channel ONT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Relatively positive trends are also recorded. So, on June 7, 2023, Alexander Lukashenko pardoned<\/a> the alleged administrator of the BBB Sofia Sapieha, who was detained after a forced landing of a Ryanair flight and sentenced to 6 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In three months, we know about 10 sentences for harsh critical comments in messengers and social networks against representatives of the authorities and law enforcement agencies. Charges were brought for negative statements about both Belarusian and Russian security forces. Such messages are interpreted by the security forces as \u201cincitement of other social enmity against a professional group,\u201d while charges are most often brought together with \u201cdefamatory\u201d articles of the Criminal Code. \u200eAlmost all cases are considered behind closed doors, and state bodies publish reports of court hearings using extremely vague excerpts from the law, and therefore the specifics of most cases remain unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once again, we note that this practice is contrary to international human rights standards and the practice of international judicial bodies: for example, the European Court of Human Rights, in its decision in the case of Savva Terentyev v. Russia, dated August 28, 2018,<\/a> indicated that law enforcement officers cannot be considered a vulnerable social group in cases where \u201cinciting enmity\u201d is suspected, and do not need increased protection from harsh comments, especially in circumstances where such comments constitute legitimate criticism of the unreasonable or illegal behavior of public officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, in May 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> the poet and private school teacher Dmitry Yurtaev for 22 comments on the political situation in Belarus. In particular, he left comments: \u201cWhen will we go silently to the furnaces? Because we are already standing in lines near paddy wagons and are not resisting the Nazis\u2026\u201d and \u201cOur husbands are being killed by bastards in black uniforms.\u201d At the trial, he noted that he called \u201cfascists\u201d only those security officials who beat people at protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 6, 2023, Konstantin Zolotykh, director of the Belarusians and Market newspaper, was sentenced<\/a> to 4 years in prison. According to the Human Rights Center Viasna, he was accused of several episodes of posting insulting comments about officials on social networks. On April 13, 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> Vladimir Ostapchik to an identical punishment for administering a Telegram channel that published footage from protests near the Pushkinskaya metro station in Minsk in 2020. On May 30, 2023, bartender Gleb Vyatoshkin was sentenced<\/a> to 5 years of \u201chome chemistry\u201d for \u201cinciting enmity\u201d and \u201cparticipating in protests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On June 20, 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> the well-known human rights activist from the Human Constanta organization Nasta Lojka to 7 years in prison for participating in the writing of the human rights report \u201cPersecution of anarchists, anti-fascists, leftists and social activists in Belarus\u201d for 2017-2018. The report provides a critical assessment of the activities of police officers in the context of human rights violations, which the investigators qualified as \u201cinciting enmity against a professional group of police officers.\u201d The details of the case are unknown, since the trial was held behind closed doors at the request of the prosecutor in order to \u201cexclude the dissemination of information products with calls for extremist activities contained on Internet resources recognized by the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as extremist formations, and by decision of the court as extremist materials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 36 new criminal cases have been recorded. It is known about mass detentions for critical comments at Baranovichi State University \u2013 KGB officers detained<\/a> 1st-year students for comments left on Knowledge Day on September 1, 2022, during the live broadcast of Lukashenko’s open lesson. It is known about criminal cases for such comments as \u201cLet\u2019s go beat cops in the evening,\u201d<\/a> \u201cWell, faces, some animal looks,\u201d<\/a> \u201cYou are a cop, you are not a person,\u201d<\/a> \u201cMark and beat by a crowd at the entrance, and one asshole in ammunition less,\u201d<\/a> \u201cand this is the army? Shameful shithole<\/a>,\u201d \u201cit’s time to take up the pitchfork, if you want peace \u2013 get ready for war<\/a>,\u201d \u201cjackals are not used to running for a long time, they will not get our guys,\u201d<\/a> \u201cbastards, cattle, you all should burn in hell,\u201d<\/a> \u201cthese scum \u200eshould be staked up,\u201d<\/a> \u201cthese cockroaches should hang on each pole,\u201d<\/a> \u201cOMON and GUBOPiK terrorist organizations to be liquidated\u201d;<\/a> \u201cI spit on your shoulder straps, on your rotten brotherhood,\u201d<\/a> \u201cThen we will bring down the OMON,\u201d<\/a> \u201chow I want to hit this guy with a soft rubber stick to the soft tissues 10 times,\u201d<\/a> as well as for various harsh comments in the address of the relatives of the security officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In April 2023, a musician was detained<\/a>, who is the alleged author of the opposition song \u201cStop the cockroach\u201d (\u201cdefames the state and government bodies\u201d) and who also left critical comments. A resident of Vitebsk was detained<\/a> for publishing information on how to properly withstand a choke hold, block roads, and blind security forces with a laser pointer. It is also known about one detention in the \u201cZeltser case\u201d<\/a> \u2013 a resident of Gomel was detained<\/a> for making a negative comment under an article about the murder of a KGB officer Dmitry Fedosyuk;<\/p>\n\n\n\n In April 2023, the state channel Belarus 1 aired a story<\/a> about the former deputy chairman of the board of Technobank Dmitry Bogush, who has been held in a pre-trial detention center since December 2022 on charges of \u201cinciting enmity.\u201d In the story, Dmitry admits<\/a> that he left \u201cugly, bad\u201d comments about the security forces, but at the same time he called on his subscribers to discuss the situation and, in general, always opposed violence. He added that he was prompted to leave such comments by photographs of beaten people at protests after the rigged presidential elections in August 2020. After he refused to leave Belarus under pressure from the security forces, he was detained, despite the fact that by that time he had deleted all his comments. Also, apparently, under pressure, the businessman was forced to mention<\/a> that \u201cif the scenario of 2020 turned out differently, as some forces wanted, then today we would have hostilities on the territory of Belarus\u201d and that \u201cthe only person who did not allow this\u201d \u2013 Lukashenko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people who left comments while abroad are detained by the security forces immediately upon their return to Belarus<\/a>: employees of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (GUBOPiK) stated that such people are included in the \u201cborder control\u201d system \u2013 no investigative actions are being carried out while a person is abroad (so that the person does not find out that he has attracted the attention of the security forces), but immediately after the border crossing the security forces detain the person. Thus, a Minsk resident, Yevgeny Tikhonov, who recently lived in Poland, went to Belarus in March to resolve issues with documents, but was detained immediately after crossing the border. Also in May, a Belarusian woman who had come from Russia to change her passport was detained.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also known about 6 processes under this article that have begun. The most high-profile trial was the trial of Eduard Babariko, the son of a political prisoner of a presidential candidate in 2020 and the head of crowdfunding platforms. The trial of Eduard began<\/a> on May 22, 2023, after almost 3 years of detention in a pre-trial detention center. Eduard is accused of a number of \u201cpolitical\u201d crimes, but the details of the case are unknown. During the process, the prosecutor requested a sentence<\/a> of 10 years in prison for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article is mostly used to punish people who regularly or repeatedly published fascist or neo-Nazi symbols, as well as materials related to \u201cideas of racial superiority of one nation over another, a positive attitude towards the soldiers of Nazi Germany,\u201d \u201cpopularization of the ideas of Nazism and neo-Nazism.\u201d In total, 7 new cases under this article are known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, for such actions, it is known about the detention of residents of Baranovichi<\/a>, Mogilev<\/a>, as well as a resident of the Chervensky district<\/a>, who published videos on social networks, \u201cwhich showed certain periods from the life of Adolf Hitler and justified the reasons for the invasion to the USSR,\u201d as well as videos about concentration camp Auschwitz, which contained a denial of the existence of the Holocaust and gas chambers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In April 2023, the IC announced the detention of a resident of Mogilev<\/a>, who kept a large amount of \u201cUkrainian and Belarusian collaborationist paraphernalia and literature\u201d on hidden shelves and communicated on the Internet \u201cin a circle of like-minded people,\u201d as well as a resident of Bobruisk<\/a>, who in social networks \u201cposted photographs of officers of the German army, admired their uniforms and \u201cgreat\u201d deeds, military equipment of the Wehrmacht,\u201d got a tattoo with a portrait of the commander of the SS \u201cWallonia\u201d brigade Leon Degrel. Also on April 4, 2023, GUBOPiK officers detained<\/a> a resident of Mogilev, who is accused of damaging more than 50 buildings with graffiti of swastikas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On June 7, 2023, pro-government sources published<\/a> a \u201cconfession video\u201d with a detained underage guy: in the video, he admits that he is the creator of the Telegram channel \u201cBelarusian National Socialist Corpus,\u201d which published pictures and information of a neo-Nazi nature. The message of the propagandists states that \u201cthe character has not reached the age of criminal responsibility, which means that his parents will be punished, and he will go to a special boarding school, which is no better than a juvenile colony.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Human rights activists do not know in which cases the posting of materials related to fascism and Nazism will be prosecuted under the articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses, and in which under Article 130-1 of the Criminal Code. It is likely that in order for the actions to be qualified as \u201crehabilitation of Nazism,\u201d the security forces must detect the fact of not only the systematic distribution of prohibited symbols, but also record the spread of various kinds of facts or comments showing a clear commitment of the person distributing them to prohibited ideologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The analyzed period was marked by the release of several propaganda films about the \u201csabotage\u201d in Machulishchi<\/a>, which describe in detail the \u201crole\u201d of the alleged main perpetrator of the \u201cact of terrorism\u201d Nikolai Shvets<\/a> and some other defendants in this case. Representatives of the opposition organization of former security forces \u201cBYPOL\u201d stated<\/a> that propaganda films almost entirely consist of fiction and lies, and in some moments they completely contradict one another<\/a>. So, for example, in the first film titled \u201cSBU \u2013 Lawlessness Service of Ukraine,\u201d<\/a> it was stated that Shvets took the drones and control panels for them from a hiding place near Minsk, however, in the second film titled \u201cGaspar did not get in touch,\u201d<\/a> information appears, that the drones were brought from Vilnius and personally handed over to Shvets by one of the defendants in the case. The film reports that about 30 people are simultaneously being investigated in the case of sabotage in Machulishchi (in the last analyzed period, the KGB announced<\/a> only 20 detainees) on charges<\/a> of \u201cattempt to commit an act of terrorism committed by an organized group\u201d (Part 3 of Article 289 of the Criminal Code) and \u201chigh treason\u201d (Article 356 of the Criminal Code), all of them, after recent changes in the Criminal Code, may face<\/a> the death penalty<\/a> as a punishment. From the \u201cinvestigations,\u201d it became known that the publisher Oleg Sychev was accused of <\/a>\u201cterrorism\u201d: he allowed Shvets to be settled in his cottage, while he was not informed for what purpose. Also, \u201cact of terrorism\u201d charges were brought against Larisa Kuchinskaya<\/a>, from whom Shvets officially rented an apartment; Maxim Lopatin<\/a>, who agreed to give Shvets a lift, and, for unknown reasons, his wife Lyudmila Lopatina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides, in April 2023, the KGB stated<\/a> that citizens of Belarus and Russia, under the leadership of the Ukrainian special services, were planning terrorist attacks in Grodno. According to the security forces, an employee of the main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Vyacheslav Rozum, through a Russian opposition leader, recruited Russian Aleksey Kulikov and a citizen of Belarus Vadim Patsenko as agents \u2013 all of them were detained. The ministry said that Kulikov filmed such strategic facilities as the Grodno military registration and enlistment office, a military unit, two oil depots, and the Consulate General of the Russian Federation, and then sent the data to Ukraine. Patsenko said that he was tasked with blowing up the tank farm using a drone and explosives. Both defendants were charged with an \u201cact of terrorism,\u201d while Kulikov was additionally found accused under Article 126 of the Criminal Code (\u201can act of international terrorism\u201d) \u2013 this article is used by the security forces for the first time in the history of observations by Human Constanta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 10, 2023, the ONT TV channel released the film \u201cThe Killing Package,\u201d<\/a> which tells about the preparation of terrorist attacks by the Ukrainian special services on the eve of the celebration of May 9 Victory Day. According to security officials, Valery Vodin, a Belarusian associated with the Kalinovsky Regiment, asked his acquaintances to pick up a package with C4 explosives disguised as tabletop electric stoves, and then hide it in a cemetery and forest for further use in sabotage. Four people who were involved in moving electric stoves (most of them did not know that they contained explosives) were considered \u201csuspects\u201d of committing an \u201cact of terrorism\u201d and \u201chigh treason.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lukashenko’s administration demands screenings and analysis of the aforementioned propaganda films in educational institutions, to which students are forcibly involved. Thus, it is known that the security forces and ideologists have already held similar events at the Baranovichi State University (BarSU)<\/a> and the Gorki State Agricultural Academy (BSAA)<\/a>, during which students were given the task to \u201cqualify the actions of each criminal and tell their peers about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n KGB Chairman Ivan Tertel said<\/a> that control has been strengthened on the state border and \u201cadditional measures have been taken to strengthen the counterintelligence regime on the territory of Belarus,\u201d which are aimed at \u201ctimely identification and localization of the activities of persons harboring terrorist, extremist aspirations towards Belarus.\u201d He stated that his agency \u201creceives information about the presence of real plans among persons from the combat groups formed on the territory of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and some other countries to commit terrorist acts in Belarus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The security forces continue to interpret any material donations to opposition initiatives recognized as \u201cterrorist\u201d on the territory of Belarus (for example, \u201cNEXTA,\u201d \u201cCyber partisans,\u201d \u201cBYPOL\u201d) as \u201cfinancing of terrorist activities.\u201d The sanction under this article provides for imprisonment from 8 to 15 years. So, on June 29, 2023, the trial<\/a> of a resident of Bobruisk under this article began, the details of the case are unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The media also report<\/a> that KGB officers are conducting \u201cconversations\u201d with people who donated to the above-mentioned initiatives in 2020, despite the fact that they acquired the status of \u201cterrorist\u201d much later. \u201cConversations\u201d in such cases are held by analogy with \u201cconversations\u201d with people who donated only to \u201cextremist\u201d funds (read more in the relevant section on the practice of applying Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code): people are asked to sign a confession and do a transfer to one of the state accounts that is one hundred times larger than the size of the donation made by a person (while for the transfer to \u201cextremist formations\u201d the security forces demand an amount \u201conly\u201d ten times the amount of the donation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 3, 2023, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced Stepan Putilo,<\/a> the founder of the Telegram channel NEXTA, to 20 years in prison, Jan Rudik, the channel’s host, to 19 years in prison, and journalist Roman Protasevich (detained after the infamous Ryanair forced landing incident<\/a>) \u2013 to 8 years in prison. Putilo and Rudik were convicted in absentia, as they both live abroad. Protasevich remained under house arrest until the verdict entered into force. According to the prosecution, they \u201cfollowing the general plan of a conspiracy to seize state power in Belarus in an unconstitutional way,\u201d published informational \u201cdestructive\u201d materials in the networks of the channels \u201cNEXTA\u201d and \u201c\u200eBelarus Golovnogo Mozga\u201d aimed at \u201cinciting people to participate in mass riots\u201d and \u201ccalls for protesting citizens to commit acts of terrorism.\u201d Charges were brought<\/a> under 10 different \u201cextremist\u201d articles of the Criminal Code. During the process, Protasevich was charged with a more severe charge \u2013 he was additionally accused<\/a> of \u201cleading an extremist formation, committed repeatedly,\u201d due to the fact that he was the administrator of several Telegram channels at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 22, 2023, Alexander Lukashenko pardoned<\/a> Roman Protasevich. In an interview with state media, he thanked the country and personally Lukashenko for the decision to pardon him. It should be noted that such a step has a clear political nature, in view of the fact that usually a pardon is a very long process, which implies serving part of the sentence, positive characteristics from the administration of places of detention, consideration of the relevant appeal by a special commission, while the pardon of Protasevich took only a couple of weeks. At the same time, the figure of Protasevich continues to be used by the authorities for propaganda purposes. For example, students of BarSU were gathered in the assembly hall<\/a> to watch Protasevich’s new interview with propagandists, after which an \u201ceducational discussion\u201d was organized with local security officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On June 6, 2023, Yana Pinchuk was sentenced<\/a> to 12 years in prison on charges of administering three opposition Telegram channels from the \u200e97% network, which the security forces consider to be involved in the NEXTA channel: Vitebsk 97%, Orsha 97%, and Novopolotsk and Polotsk 97%. In addition to \u201ccreating a terrorist organization,\u201d Pinchuk was also charged with \u201ccreating an extremist formation\u201d (Part 1 of Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code), \u201ccalling for causing harm to national security\u201d (Part 3 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code), \u201cinciting enmity \u201c(Part 3 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code), \u201cmass riots\u201d (Part 3 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code). Let us recall that earlier she was extradited from Russia to Belarus, which was accompanied by obvious violations by Belarus of the Convention on Legal Assistance, as well as ignoring the interim measures of the UN Human Rights Committee<\/a> prohibiting the extradition of Pinchuk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May 2023, Minsk and Gomel courts began to consider two criminal cases at once on charges of \u201cparticipation in the activities of a terrorist organization.\u201d In the dock there are Dmitry Gudeev<\/a> and a resident of Svetlogorsk Maxim Drobnitsa<\/a>. <\/strong>The main difference between the application of articles 290-4 of the Criminal Code and 290-5 of the Criminal Code, similar in wording, is that the first article was mainly applied in practice for the management of structural units or active participation in the work of an organization, and the second article was applied for directly creating of an organization recognized as \u201cterrorist\u201d on the territory of Belarus (charges under this article were previously brought against the founder of \u201cNEXTA\u201d Stepan Putilo and the political representative of the \u201cSupraciu\u201d movement Dmitry Shchigelsky).<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 4, 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> KGB Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Trifonov and Olga Solomenik to 14 and 7.5 years in prison, respectively. The details of the trial are unknown due to its being held behind closed doors, however, the ONT propaganda film \u201cMankurts,\u201d<\/a> released in 2021, reveals the reasons for the detention of these people. The film reported on the detention of KGB Colonel Aleksey Khralovich for sending to the NEXTA channel a recording of a conversation between Lukashenko’s press secretary Natalya Eismont and various officials about the circumstances of the death of Roman Bondarenko (in March 2022, he was sentenced<\/a> to 10 years in prison under Article 356 of the Criminal Code). As it became known from the film, after the arrest, Khralovich agreed to cooperate with the investigation and was included in the \u201coperational combination\u201d in order to find out ways of evacuation of Belarusians persecuted for political reasons. During the operation to search for those involved in the evacuation, the security forces came to a group of people, including Trifionov and Solomenik. The film tells that Olga, at the request of ex-security officer Igor Makar, had to \u201cpick up a certain person and documents,\u201d in particular, \u201cthe KGB archive\u201d and \u201csend it to Poland.\u201d Vladimir Trifanov was a conductor on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, through which he was instructed to transport Khralovich outside official checkpoints, who was included in the operational game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is known about 3 more sentences, the details of which are practically unknown:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 6, 2023, the Grodno Regional Court sentenced<\/a> a truck driver from Lida to 12 years in prison for \u201ctreason against the state\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On May 11, 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> the owner of the store of national symbols \u201cSYMBAL.BY\u201d Pavel Belous to 13 years in prison on charges of \u201cspreading the ideas of Belarusian nationalism,\u201d propaganda of the ideas of the \u201cPolish world,\u201d \u201cpumping the country\u2019s electorate with enmity towards the state,\u201d as well as \u201csupplying people with protest symbols and coordination of activities aimed at the violent seizure of power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 27, 2023, as part of a trial in absentia, Stanislav Luponosov, ex-lieutenant colonel of the GUBOPiK, who, after the harsh suppression of protests in August 2020, collaborated with BYPOL, and then joined this organization, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n A lawsuit has begun against the former head of the air intelligence service, Valery Romanovsky<\/a>, for taking photographs of official documents stamped \u201csecret\u201d and \u201ctop secret\u201d and passing information about the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (BelNPP) to the Lithuanian special services. Another lawsuit began against the head of the Gomselmash shop, Vladislav Pudyak<\/a>. It is also known that the detained former press secretary of the Kupala Theater Nikolai Zaets was interrogated<\/a> in the case of \u201chigh treason,\u201d on the basis of which it can be assumed that a case was initiated against him under this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 7, 2023, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced<\/a> opposition politician Valery Tsepkala in absentia to 17 years in prison in a special proceeding. Tsepkalo was charged under 12 articles of the Criminal Code \u2013 in addition to financial crimes, he was charged with \u201cinciting enmity,\u201d \u201ccalling for sanctions,\u201d \u201ccreating an extremist formation,\u201d \u201cfinancing extremism,\u201d \u201cslandering and insulting Lukashenko,\u201d \u201cdiscrediting the Republic of Belarus\u201d and even in \u201cwar propaganda.\u201d During the process, the public prosecutor requested<\/a> a sentence of 19 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On June 21, 2023, the verdict was announced<\/a> in the case of arson of the house of the pro-government deputy Oleg Gaidukevich and \u201can attempt to seize power by unconstitutional means with terrorist attacks and riots.\u201d In this case, 18 people were simultaneously involved, 3 of whom (political activist Vadim Prokopiev, former special forces soldier Igor Chemyakin and former security officer of diplomatic missions Denis Khamitsevich) are abroad and were convicted in absentia. All defendants in the case were found guilty and sentenced in total to almost 240 years in prison. Prokopyev received the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison in absentia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 10, 2023, the Minsk City Court sentenced<\/a> Alexander Danilevich, a lawyer and lecturer at the Belarusian State University (BSU), to 10 years in prison on charges of \u201ccalling for sanctions\u201d and \u201caiding extremist activity.\u201d This is one of the first cases when the professional activity of a lawyer in providing services to persons who are opponents of the current regime was actually equated with \u201cextremist activity.\u201d According to the IC<\/a>, the lawyer \u201cprovided support to extremists and adherents of legal nihilism\u201d and \u201cmade attempts to politicize sports in Belarus.\u201d According to investigators, he advised employees of the opposition initiative \u201cSports Solidarity Fund\u201d in the context of their activities to promote the cancellation of sports events in Belarus in connection with massive violations of human rights in the country, as well as to impose sanctions against persons from the sports sector who carry out such violations. The lawyer was also found guilty of drawing up letters and documents addressed to the Norwegian company Yara, a major buyer of Belaruskali products, in which he described the human rights situation at Belarusian enterprises and urged the company to comply with business and human rights standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The IC also noted that Danilevich communicated with \u201cextremist\u201d resources to \u201ccreate a destructive information agenda\u201d \u2013 in fact, the lawyer gave an interview to one of the Telegram channels, which was then simply reprinted by the Tribuna sports publication, recognized as \u201cextremist materials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 18, 2023, the Brest Regional Court sentenced<\/a> a 42-year-old resident of Minsk to 5 years in prison on charges of \u201cprotests\u201d and \u201cinsults,\u201d as well as for writing letters to representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about the situation in Belarus, in which the investigation considered \u201cappeals to harm national security.\u201d On June 15, 2023, Andrey Fomin, who is accused of writing and editing texts in the opposition format in the Vestnik samizdat, began to be tried in the Minsk City Court.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The article continues to be used to repress any form of self-organization of society that is objectionable to the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 35 cases of criminal prosecution during the analyzed period were related to the registration in the Telegram bot of the opposition initiative \u201cPlan Peramoga,\u201d and most of the arrests were made for registration in the \u201cfake\u201d analogue of the bot. The security forces continued to use direct provocations to increase the number of detainees: GUBOPiK employees created a fake chatbot<\/a> and offered participants in opposition chats to \u201cfind out about the presence of compromising information about themselves\u201d with it. The security officers, posing as employees of the opposition organization of former siloviki \u201c\u200eBYPOL,\u201d offered to cooperate with those who got in touch \u2013 they asked them to \u201cupdate personal data,\u201d and then offered to perform \u201ca task to monitor the assigned object\u201d or \u201cpick up the contents of the cache.\u201d All people who believe the security forces are detained as part of criminal cases. The pro-government publication \u201cOn Guard\u201d noted<\/a> that \u201chundreds of people\u201d have registered in the fake bot and are now under threat of detention; propagandist Igor Tur stated that during one of the provocations, the security forces identified 150 people. The security forces call these provocations the legal term <\/a>\u201coperational combinations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 5, 2023, the Grodno Regional Court delivered a verdict<\/a> in the case of the Dapamoga volunteer organization, which helps repressed Belarusians evacuate to Lithuania. On charges of \u201cparticipation in an extremist formation,\u201d the court sentenced two-time political prisoner Anita Bakunovich, who turned to the organization with a request to help her cross the border outside official checkpoints, to 3 years in prison, and Nikolai Kuleshov, who collaborated with this organization and helped political refugees \u2013 to 5 years in prison. Also, Yegor Kurzin, who turned to the initiative, was sentenced to 3 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The persecution of the administrators of local yard chats continued, in 2020 they were used for coordinating protest activity, and then were sources of opposition information for local residents \u2013 at least 4 such cases are known:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 18, 2023, a 55-year-old resident of Brest was detained for administering the \u201cextremist\u201d chat \u201cNorthern 97\u201d;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On May 4, 2023, the administrator of two Minsk chat rooms \u201c\u200eKireeva 23\u201d was detained for \u201c\u200epublishing extremist materials and fakes for two years\u201d and providing various information to \u201c\u200efugitive extremists\u201d;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On June 6, 2023, the alleged administrator of the Minsk chat \u201cValeryanovo\u201d was detained<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On June 22, 2023, pro-government sources reported<\/a> the arrest of the alleged administrator of the Minsk chat \u201cPlekhanova-Rokossovskogo\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On June 14, 2023, it became known<\/a> that the wife of one of the Vitebsk political prisoners was also charged under Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The analyzed period was marked by increased pressure on people who sent material donations to solidarity funds, recognized in Belarus as \u201cextremist formations.\u201d Despite the fact that the vast majority of people sent donations in 2020, and the funds were recognized as \u201cextremist formations\u201d only on December 3, 2021, the security forces still consider such actions to be crimes, which once again confirms that the anti-extremist legislation in Belarus has the retroactive effect<\/a>. Detentions are carried out on the basis of account statements, which show that a person donated in the Facebook application in 2020 (previously, the application was one of the main platforms for donations to victims of Belarus). At the same time, the security forces do not have information on which initiative the donation was made through Facebook \u2013 to simplify their work, the KGB officers consider any debitings from the Facebook account made in the second half of 2020 to be \u201ccriminal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Media outlet \u201cZerkalo.io\u201d reported<\/a> that in May 2023 Oxagile \u2019s technical director Sergey Marchuk was summoned to a conversation with the KGB, during which he was told that \u201cthe country\u2019s leadership\u201d was not interested in IT specialists fleeing the country and in the reduction of tax revenues to the treasury, however, 70% of \u201ccriminal\u201d donations were made by IT specialists, in connection with which some sanctions should still be applied to them. In this regard, the KGB officers offered employees of IT companies an approach to solving this issue, different from the approach of the GUBOPiK, which, as noted in the department, is \u201cintimidation,\u201d after which people flee the country. KGB officers offered to send to the management of IT companies lists of employees who made donations, who, in turn, should come to a \u201cpreventive conversation,\u201d sign a \u201csurrender,\u201d make a transfer to one of the state accounts in a tenfold amount exceeding the amount of a donation made by a person and then, within 10 days, bring a receipt of payment to the KGB. It is known<\/a> that the security forces are asking to transfer funds to the accounts of such institutions as the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Oncology and Medical Rehabilitation, the Minsk City Center for Medical Rehabilitation of Children with Psychoneurological Diseases, as well as various boarding schools for children with disabilities. In case of refusal to make a donation to state accounts or if the amount received is less than the amount agreed upon at the \u201cconversation,\u201d criminal cases are opened against people, and people who are abroad are threatened with detention by the GUBOPiK immediately upon their return to Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The volume of such preventive conversations is increasing: the Department of Financial Investigations of the State Control Committee (DFR KGC) has joined the persecution for donations, and a special department has been created in the KGB to work with IT specialists seen in donations. It is known that the KGB offices in Brest and Vitebsk are used for \u201cconversations\u201d with people who find it inconvenient to go to Minsk from abroad. The KGB officers are going to deal with employees of a large company EPAM last because of the large number of suspects. At the same time, despite the fact that these measures primarily concern IT specialists, pressure is also exerted<\/a> on employees of state institutions: people on the \u201clists\u201d are also called in for a conversation and forced to make donations to state funds, after which they informally ask the management of institutions to dismiss such people. The media also receives information about checks in this regard at border points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the analyzed period, at least 8 new cases for donations to solidarity funds are known: it is known that for these actions criminal cases were initiated against the deputy director of the Minsk Watch Plant Alexei Solonenko<\/a>, businesswoman Victoria Gavrilina<\/a>, the creator of rave projects Pavel Dankov<\/a>, owners of a network of second-hand stores \u201cModaMax\u201d Alla Khodasevich and her daughter-in-law Inna Khadasevich<\/a>; Artem Lebedko<\/a>, son of opposition politician Anatoly Lebedko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are at least 4 sentences with a long prison term for donations:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf Ruslan Zavadich, a resident of Minsk, was sentenced<\/a> to 3 years in prison for donating $50 to By_Help in August 2020 and donating $25 to Valery Tsepkala in 2021;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf Kirill Klimov, a resident of Minsk, was sentenced<\/a> to 4 years in prison for 6 donations of $10 each;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf Vitaly Chernousov, a resident of Lida, was sentenced<\/a> to 5 years in prison;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf Nikolai Vasilevich, a resident of Minsk, was sentenced<\/a> to 6 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the analyzed period, the security forces stepped up the application of this article to punish people who sent any kind of information to opposition channels, regardless of whether the information was sent before the recognition of the corresponding resource as \u201cextremist\u201d or after. In total, at least 8 cases of detention for such actions are known:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u25cf On April 6, 2023, the head of a local pharmacy was detained in Gomel<\/a>. According to security officials, the man photographed departmental documents signed by the general director of the enterprise, and then handed over the pictures to the \u201cextremist\u201d Telegram channel;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When publishing statistics on cases within a particular article, we mention the total number of convictions (even if several people are convicted within the same sentence) and the number of new cases of persecution (detentions and new charges). In view of the fact that many people are accused under several articles of the Criminal Code at once, the authors of the review tried to determine which article is the \u201cmain\u201d one in the charge and, on this basis, attribute the case to one or another section of the review. For example, a report by pro-government sources refers to the detention of a \u201cNazi\u00bb person who is \u201can adherent of neo-Nazi views,\u201d but the charge was brought simultaneously for \u201cincitement of enmity\u201d and \u201crehabilitation of Nazism\u201d \u2013 based on the content of the message, it is obvious that the main reason for the persecution of a person is \u201cRehabilitation of Nazism,\u201d and therefore, we attribute this case to such section and in statistics it is displayed as one case only under Article 130-1 of the Criminal Code.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\nChanges in legislation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cExtremism\u201d and the war in Ukraine\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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2.1. Criminal cases related to Belarusian units fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine<\/em> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2.2. Prosecution for condemning Russian aggression on social media<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2.3. The case of the Union of the Belarusian National Shield<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2.4. The transfer of information about Russian troops was equated with \u201cassistance to extremism\u201d and \u201ctreason against the state\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2.5. Criminal cases for hanging Ukrainian and Belarusian national flags<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2.6. Ukrainian sites blocked for information about Prigozhin’s rebellion<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Criminal proceedings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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3.1. Article 130 of the Criminal Code \u201cInciting racial, national, religious or other social enmity or discord\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3.1.1. Leakages of personal data of security officials<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3.1.2. Comments critical of the security forces<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3.2. Article 130-1 of the Criminal Code \u201cRehabilitation of Nazism\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3.3. Article 289 of the Criminal Code \u201cAct of terrorism\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3.4. Article 290-1 of the Criminal Code \u201cFinancing of terrorist activities\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3.5. Article 290-4 of the Criminal Code \u201cEstablishment of an organization for the implementation of terrorist activities or participation in it\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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3.6. Article 290-5 of the Criminal Code \u201cOrganization of the activities of a terrorist organization and participation in the activities of such an organization\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3.7. Article 356 of the Criminal Code \u201cHigh treason\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3.8. Article 357 of the Criminal Code \u201cConspiracy or other actions committed with the aim of seizing state power\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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3.9. Article 361 of the Criminal Code \u201cCalls for restrictive measures (sanctions), other actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3.10. Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code \u201cCreation of an extremist formation or participation in it\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3.11. Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code \u201cFinancing of extremist activities\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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3.12. Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code \u201cAidind extremist activity\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n