As of 15 September 2024, at least 163 cultural figures, including not less than 37 People of Word, were behind bars.
Historian Ihar Mielnikaŭ was sentenced to four years in a minimum-security penal colony under Article 361.4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activity).
A new criminal case was opened against political prisoner, journalist, and writer Mikola Dziadok.
Minsk City Court began the criminal trial of Ksienija Suša, who worked as the chief bibliographer of the National Library of Belarus’s research department of bibliography.
Poet Siarhiej Sys is treated as a suspect in the criminal case against the participants in two episodes of the Plan B show on Belsat TV.
A court in Minsk began the trial of former political prisoner, singer Meryjem Hierasimienka, who has been outside Belarus since January 2024.
The opening of Antanina Falej’s jubilee exhibition, LITARA JA, was cancelled in Minsk.
The Belaruskamoŭnyja (Belarusian-speaking people) chat on Telegram was labelled “extremist.”
26 crosses, information signs, and pointers to graves were destroyed at the place of mass executions during Stalinism near the village of Hajsy near Viciebsk.
I. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers
1. On 2 September, the Minsk City Court began the criminal trial of Ksenija Suša, who worked as the chief bibliographer of the bibliographic research department of the National Library of Belarus until November 2021. Ksenija Suša was detained on 23 January 2024 for helping political prisoners and charged with facilitating extremist activities under Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 361.4 of the Criminal Code and with calling for sanctions under Part 3 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code.
2. On 11 September, Minsk’s Central District Court began the criminal trial of former political prisoner, singer Meryjem Hierasimienka, who has been outside Belarus since January 2024. On 19 January 2023, the same court sentenced her to three years of home confinement under Part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code (active participation in actions that grossly violate public order). Meryjem Hierasimienka was detained on 4 August 2022 in Minsk after a concert at the Banki-Bytylki bar. Among the songs performed by the singer at the concert was Ukrainian band Okean Elzy’s song Obijmy (Embrace). After the detention, the singer was twice sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest and then re-detained as part of the criminal case under Article 342 of the Criminal Code (active participation in group actions that grossly violate public order).
3. On 13 September, the Minsk City Court ruled to sentence historian Ihar Mielnikaŭ to four years in a minimum-security penal colony under Article 361.4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activities). IharMielnikaŭ is a historian, historical reconstructor, and author of books about the history of Western Belarus and people who lived near the Belarusian-Polish border. He graduated from the History Faculty of the Belarusian State Pedagogical University (2002) and Warsaw University (2005) and earned PhD in History in 2011. During the post-election crackdown in Belarus, he supported the government. He published Collaborationism: The Anatomy of Treason (2023) and was preparing to publish Proceed to Liquidation, a book about the work of Soviet special services in post-war Belarus. Ihar Mielnikaū was detained on 21 January 2024 and charged with facilitating extremist activities under Article 361.4 of the Criminal Code. In 2024, Minsk’s Central District Court designated as “extremist” three books by the historian Ihar Mielnikaū: Ničyparuk P.K., Mielnikaū I.B. Odyssey of a Palessie Man. Minsk: Alpha-book, 2017; Mielnikaū, I. B. The Forgotten Corps: The History of the Polish Army on the Territory of Babrujsk Region in 1918, 1919–1920. Minsk: Alpha-book, 2018; Mielnikaū, I. B. On the “Border of Civilizations”. Pages of history of the Pre-War Soviet-Polish Border in Belarus Minsk: Alfa-kniga, 2020.
4. On 13 September, it became known that a new criminal case was initiated against the political prisoner journalist and writer Mikola Dziadok in prison No. 1 under Article 411 of the Criminal Code (malicious disobedience to the requirements of the administration of a correctional institution). Mikola Dziadok is the author of the book Colours of the Parallel World,published in 2017 in the Belarusian Prison Literature series, founded by the Viasna Human Rights Center. The book analyses the Belarusian correctional system and the methods used by the administration to break the will of prisoners. Сolours of the Parallel World is based on the author’s experience during the first politically motivated prison term when Mikola Dziadok spent 4.5 years behind bars (2010-2015, the “case of anarchists”) and was recognized as a political prisoner. In 2017, Mikoła Dziadok received the Francišak Alachnovič Award, which was founded jointly by PEN Belarus and Radio Svaboda and given for the best work written in prison. He was arrested on 11 November 2020. On 10 November 2021, the Minsk City Court sentenced Mikoła Dziadok to five years in prison. Judge Anastasia Papko found him guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code (342, 361, and 295-3). He has spent more than one year in solitary confinement.
5. On 13 September, it became known that the Office of the Investigative Committee for the Homiel region initiated a criminal case against the participants of two episodes of the TV show “Plan: B” on Belsat TV dated 25 March and 1 April. The list of people treated as suspects under Part 2 of Article 361.4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activity) includes more than ten people, poet and journalist Siarhiej Sys among them.
II. Administrative prosecution
On 14 September, it became known that Dzianis Jakaŭleŭ, the chief custodian of the Minaj Šmyraū museum’s funds and populariser of the history of World War II, was convicted in Viciebsk for subscribing to independent information outlets under Part 2 of Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (dissemination of informational products included in the list of extremist materials).
III. Conditions in the place of confinement
For more than a year and a half, relatives of the musician, civil, and political activist Maryja Kalesnikava have yet to receive letters from her. The family received the latest letter on 15 February 2023. Parcels are forbidden, and a lawyer is not allowed to visit her. Because of a stomach ulcer, she cannot eat prison food. Her sister reports that Maria Kalesnikova, 175 centimetres tall, weighs only 45 kilograms.
IV. Censorship
1. The opening of Antanina Falej’s jubilee exhibition, LITARA JA, at Minsk’s Halereja Mastactva (Art Gallery) salon shop was cancelled. The exhibition, scheduled to run from August 29 to September 7, was to showcase the works created over the past seven years: collages, watercolour, and paintings. In 2020, the artist signed an open letter of cultural and artistic figures condemning violence against peaceful protesters.
2. On 2 September, it became known that the Belaruskamoŭnyja (Belarusian-speaking people) chat on Telegram was labelled “extremist,” according to the updated list of “extremist” materials on the Ministry of Information’s website.
V. Violation of the right to education in the language of national minorities
For three years, children of Polish origin have been deprived of the opportunity to learn Polish in public schools. In 2022, educational institutions with the Polish language of instruction in Hrodna and Vaūkavysk were transferred to the Russian language following the authorities’ decision. As a result of the anti-Polish campaign, privately owned institutions that offer Polish language courses are also subject to repression. During 2024, the authorities liquidated more than 10 educational institutions.
VI. Destruction of memorial sites
On 8 September, it became known about vandalism at the place of mass executions during the USSR near the village of Chajsy in the Viciebsk district. 26 crosses, pointers to graves, and signs with information about executions were destroyed.