In 2021, more than 1,600 people were convicted in ‘extremist’ criminal cases in Belarus, Prosecutor General Andrey Shved says. Notably, it is even more than human rights activists’ calculations.
It should be noted that the words ‘extremism’ and ‘destructive activity’ are now used by the Lukashenka regime to condemn any manifestation of dissent and protest moods.
“Last year, the investigation was completed, the best part of of criminal cases on crimes committed in 2020 by people who tried to carry out a coup d’etat were sent to court. In total, the courts have considered more than 1,200 criminal cases in which more than 1,600 people have been convicted,” Andrey Shved said in a video posted on the Telegram channel of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to the human rights centre Viasna, at least 1,285 people were convicted in criminal cases of a political nature in the year of 2021; liberty restriction was applied in 41.8% of the cases. However, it is known that human rights activists might not have precise information on the number of criminal cases related to protests and criticism of the regime.
On 9 August 2020, numerous protest rallies started throughout Belarus on the back of announcing the preliminary results of the 2020 presidential election; the major demands of Belarusians were Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s resignation; holding a free and fair election; releasing political prisoners; putting an end to police violence as well as bringing to justice those involved in battering and torturing peaceful demonstrators.
Since then, more than 5,000 criminal cases linked to the post-election protests have been initiated across the country; there is roughly a dozen deaths associated with the confrontation between the authorities and the protesters. As of today, 988 persons have been recognised as political prisoners by the Belarusian human rights community.
Hundreds or even thousands of protesters have reportedly been the victims of targeted torture; around 39.5 thousand people have ben detained. According to the Amnesty International organisation, the Belarusian authorities admitted receiving some 900 complaints of abuse by police in connection with the protests, but by the end of the year not a single criminal investigation had been opened, nor had any law enforcement officer been charged with respective violations. The country’s investigative authorities and law enforcement agencies has been apparently assisting the regime in prosecuting opponents and muzzling dissent.
