As of 15 April 2024, at least 155 cultural figures, including not less than 36 People of the Word, were behind bars.
Politically imprisoned Nizkiz band musicians were added to the “list of extremists.”
Poet and Protestant priest Siarhiej Mieljaniec spent 25 days of administrative arrest.
Nina Bahinskaja received a 2000 BYN ($611) fine for a badge with the white-red-white flag.
Human rights defender, writer, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aleś Bialacki has been held in a solitary confinement cell in the penal colony No 9 in Horki. His health condition has deteriorated.
Local historian Uladzimir Hundar was deprived of food parcels for one year.
Maryja Kalesnikava has been kept in isolation in a cell-type room in the penal colony.
Belarusian Puppets Theatre Dzmitry Siamionaŭ was fired.
I. Politically motivated criminal cases against cultural workers, authors, and performers
On 12 April 2024, it became known that the musicians of the Nizkiz band were added to the “list of extremists” for “gross violation of order.” On 20 March, Homiel’s Kastryčnicki District Court sentenced Alaksandr Iljin, Siarhiej Kulša, and Dzmitry Chalaŭkin to restricted freedom in home confinement for 2.5 years under Part 1 of Art. 342 of the Criminal Code (organising and preparing actions that grossly violate public order or actively participating in them).
II. Politically motivated administrative detentions and arrests of cultural figures
On 10 April, it became known that poet Siarhiej Mieljaniec, detained on 19 March 2024 in Minsk, was re-arrested. He spent two administrative periods under arrest for a total of 25 days. Siarhiej Mieljaniec is a Protestant priest, poet, bard, and father of seven children. Siarhiej Mieljaniec attended political trials and posted reports on his Facebook page.
III. Repression for using Belarusian and Ukrainian national symbols
1. A truck driver was detained for having a tattoo with the image of Pahonia. The coat of arms “Pahonia” is included in Belarus’s State List of Historical and Cultural Heritage.
2. The Braslaŭ District Court fined the driver Mikałaj Kaškur 4,000 rubles ($1,222) for a video clip with white-red-white symbols on the Odnoklassniki social network.
3. On 15 April 15, Minsk’s Partyzanski District Court awarded a 2,000 BYN ($611) fine to activist Nina Bahinskaja for wearing a badge with a white-red-white flag on her coat lapel. The court ruled that the “white badge with the image of white and red colours” be destroyed.
IV. Conditions in places of confinement, torture of prisoners
1. Human rights defender, writer, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aleś Bialacki has been held in solitary confinement in Colony No. 9 in Horki. His health condition has deteriorated. Aleś Bialiacki’s wife, Natallia Pinčuk, wrote: “I learned from the people who got out of prison that Aleś’s condition continues to deteriorate. But he does not get some of the medicines he needs.”
2. Local historian Uladzimir Hundar, serving his 20-year sentence in a penal colony, was deprived of food parcels for one year. He has a disability; his leg was amputated below the knee.
3. Maryja Kalesnikava, a flutist and political figure, has been isolated in the penal colony. She was placed in a solitary cell-type room. Her family last received a letter from Maryja on 15 February 2023. In late November 2023, Maryja Kalesnikava was admitted to the intensive care unit at the Homiel Emergency Rescue Hospital. Doctors performed an urgent operation after discovering a prolapsed ulcer complicated by peritonitis. Soon after the hospital, Maryja was transferred back to the prison’s medical ward, where she was allowed to meet with her father. Since then, her family has received no information from her. Maryja Kalesnikava was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
V. Dismissals from cultural institutions
On 8 April, Belarusian Puppet Theatre director Dzmitry Siamionaŭ was dismissed in Minsk.
VI. Repressions in the book sector
Minsk’s Central District Court ruled to designate Viktar Lachor’s book Military Symbols of Belarusians. Banners and Uniforms as “extremist.”