human rights activists summarized the results of administrative persecution in 2023

2024-01-12 10:05:24

According to the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, last year at least 6,386 people faced various types of repression, including 1,776 women and 4,566 men.

But the real numbers may be much higher, as not all information about repressions reaches human rights defenders.

Human rights defenders recorded the largest number of repressions in Minsk and the Minsk region — 1,535 people. Next come the Gomel and Horaden regions – 1,345 and 1,023 people.

According to human rights activists, at least 4,466 trials were held across the country last year based on politically motivated articles.

Belarusian courts have imposed at least 1,822 fines for a total amount of 1,524,492 rubles (almost 466,000 dollars). The judges also ordered at least 2,005 arrests. In total, Belarusians spent at least 22,988 days in detention centers.

In addition, according to the information of “Viasna”, the courts ordered community service in 22 cases, and 38 cases were terminated for various reasons.

For three and a half years, “special” conditions have been created for “political” detainees in the cells of temporary detention centers, human rights activists write. All this time, people are not given hygiene products, change of clothes, bed linen. They are not taken out either to the shower or to the fresh air. In such conditions, some arrested persons are kept for several months in a row.

At the same time, the cells remain crowded all this time. Therefore, people are forced to sleep on the floor, under beds, on benches and even on tables. As additional pressure, homeless people are placed in cells. The light burns continuously day and night.

Detainees are not accepted with a change of clothes, hygiene products and medicines, and they sometimes have to beg for soap and toilet paper from the administration for several days.

There is usually no warm water in the cells, and it is not recommended to drink cold water from the tap.

Mass repressions in Belarus intensified after the rigged elections of 2020, when hundreds of thousands of Belarusians protested, which the authorities brutally suppressed, arresting tens of thousands of people. During the dispersal of protests, people were killed and injured. Since then, repression in Belarus has not stopped.