Summary of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” report:
Political prisoners and politically motivated prosecution
In April, the authorities continued to actively use criminal prosecution as the main form of political repression. Human Rights Center Viasna is aware of at least 96 convicts in politically motivated criminal cases during the month.
According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, over the period from August 2020 to April 2021, more than three thousand criminal cases were initiated related to the organization and conduct of illegal mass events and protests. It also reported over 750 facts of alleged desecration of buildings and damage to property, about 600 insults to government officials, and more than 300 cases of violence or threats of its use against police officers.
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” knows the names of more than 1,000 persons prosecuted for political reasons.
The number of political prisoners reached 360 at the end of the month and continues to grow as information about criminal cases is received and analyzed.
New trends have emerged in the politically motivated criminal prosecution, as the authorities are increasingly blacklisting local opposition chats and Telegram channels as extremist and accusing their administrators of creating extremist organizations, respectively. According to Viasna experts, these trends in law enforcement practice are due to the adoption by the National Assembly of amendments and additions to the Law “On Countering Extremism”. These changes criminalize almost any public criticism of the government, both in general and its individual representatives.
In particular, on March 18, a community activist from the village of Ždanovičy near Minsk, mother of four children Volha Zalatar, was detained. On March 29, the woman was officially charged under Part 1 of Art. B, Art. 361-1 of the Criminal Code (creation of an extremist formation) and remanded in a pre-trial facility. On April 2, the country’s human rights community “Politically Motivated Criminal Prosecutions. Belarus 2020-2021”. Based on the results of monitoring criminal cases in courts and evaluating the investigations, the human rights defenders concluded that the criminal proceedings against dissidents, including in the courts, are marred by widespread violations of both domestic laws and constitutional and internationally recognized standards of a fair trial. Disregard for human rights and gross violations have fundamentally eroded trust in the rule of law, as well as trust and respect in the judiciary.
Human rights activists note the deterioration of the situation with the transparency and openness of the consideration of criminal cases, as several more trials against protesters and opposition activists were held behind closed doors without a valid reason. The case of Pavel Seviarynets and activists of the European Belarus opposition group will be considered in a closed session. It should be noted that the participants in such hearings, except for the defendants, have no right to disclose information they learned during the trial under the threat of criminal punishment.
The defendants in criminal cases and their lawyers have repeatedly noted the facts of opposition to the implementation of the defense: visits of lawyers and clients are arbitrarily limited, suspects and accused are often interrogated in the absence of a defense lawyer, judges do not provide legal assistance in administrative proceedings. In some cases, suspects are not informed in a timely manner about the reason for the detention and the charges they are facing.
On April 28, the government-owned TV channel ONT published a video of a conversation between Siarhei Tsikhanouski and his lawyer in the pre-trial prison in Minsk. Thus, the authorities openly admitted to a gross violation of the right of the accused and the defense attorney to confidential communication, predetermining the assessment of compliance with the guarantees of a fair trial not only in relation to Tsikhanouski, but also to other political prisoners.
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