As of 15 October 2024, at least 165 cultural figures, including not less than 37 People of Word, were behind bars.
The Homiel Regional Court sentenced history teacher and human rights defender Alena Masliukova to three years in a minimum-security penal colony.
A criminal case was opened against journalist and writer Hanna Zlatkoūskaja.
A trial in absentia was held against Valeryja Čarnamorcava, a researcher of Stalin’s repressions.
Researcher of Stalin’s repressions Aleh Čartkoū (Navapolack), history teacher Natallia Kruk (Dokšycy), local historian and school principal Aliaksandr Lejkin (Rahačoū), clothing designer Natallia Kremis (Viciebsk) were convicted for subscribing to independent news sources under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (dissemination of extremist materials).
Musician Paviel Akuševič (DjBIGACTION) was detained.
Political prisoner, lawyer, poet, bard, and author of the book Zekameron Maksim Znak has remained incommunicado in the Viciebsk penal colony No. 3 for 18 months.
Political prisoner, journalist, essayist, author of texts about Belarus’s cultural and historical heritage, and travel blogger Ihar Karniej is kept in a cell-type room.
Political prisoner, musician and public figure Maryja Kalesnikava remains incommunicado.
Poet and researcher Iryna Dubianieckaja’s lecture was cancelled in Hrodna.
I. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers
1. On 8 October, it became known that a criminal case was opened against the journalist and writer Hanna Zlatkoūskaja in absentia, her property was seized, and her mother’s apartment was searched. Hanna Zlatkoūskaja left Belarus in November 2020 because of political persecution. The charges against Hanna are yet to be known.
2. On 11 October, Minsk’s Savieski District Court held a trial in absentia of the researcher of Stalin’s repressions, Valeryja Čarnamorcava. The court ruled that punishment in the form of home confinement be replaced with imprisonment. Valeryja Čarnamorcava is outside Belarus.
3. On 11 October, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus added documentary filmmaker Jaūhien Hluškoū and cultural blogger Aleś Sabaleūski, convicted for political reasons, to the list of “extremists.”
4. On 15 October, the Homiel Regional Court sentenced in absentia Alena Masliukova, a history teacher and human rights defender, to three years in a minimum-security penal colony under Part 1 and 2 of Article 361.4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activities). Alena Masliukova left Belarus in 2021, fleeing political persecution.
II. Detentions and administrative trials
1. On 2 October, the researcher of Stalin’s repressions, Aleh Čartkoū, was convicted in Navapolack for subscribing to independent news outlets under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (dissemination of extremist materials).
2. On 8 October, history teacher Natallia Kruk was convicted in Dokšycy for subscribing to independent news outlets under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (disseminating extremist materials).
3. On 10 October, Rahačoū District Court convicted local historian and secondary school No. 4 principal Aliaksandr Lejkin for subscribing to independent news sources under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (disseminating extremist materials).
4. On 10 October, the Viciebsk District convicted clothing designer Natallia Kremis, already convicted under Part 1 of Article 361.4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activities), for subscribing to independent news outlets under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (dissemination of extremist materials).
5. On 11 October, it became known that musician Paviel Akuševič, aka DjBIGACTION, who worked as a DJ in local bars and restaurants, including “Hookah Place”, was detained in Lida.
III. Conditions in places of incarceration
1. Political prisoner lawyer, poet, bard, and author of the book Zekameron Maksim Znak remains incommunicado in the Viciebsk penal colony No. 3 “Vićba” for 18 months. A former political prisoner, who was released earlier this year, told the monitors: “When I was in punitive confinement, I communicated through the ventilation system with a man who introduced himself as Maksim Znak. He said that for a year (it was the end of 2023), he had been sitting alone in a cell-type room, that solitary confinement was morally difficult for him, but he was holding on.”
2. Political prisoner, journalist, essayist, author of texts about Belarus’s cultural and historical heritage, and travel blogger Ihar Karniej is held in a cell-type room. His stay there was supposed to end in August, but it became known that the term was extended. Ihar Karniej will remain in the punitive cell until January 2025. Calls to him are prohibited, and a parcel with warm things was returned to the sender. On 22 March 2024, the Minsk City Court sentenced Ihar Karniej to three years in a minimum-security penal colony under Part 3 of Article 361.1 of the Criminal Code (participating in an extremist formation).
3. Political prisoner, musician and public figure Maryja Kalesnikava remains incommunicado. Nobody knows her current state of health; she has not been in touch with her family for more than 18 months. The latest when a letter arrived from Maryja was in February 2023. Letters to Maryja Kalesnikava “are being torn up by the penal colony’s personnel in front of her,” said Maryja’s sister, quoting former inmates.
IV. Censorship
Poetess and researcher Iryna Dubianieckaja’s lecture was cancelled in Hrodna.
V. Repressions in the book-publishing sphere
1. On 11 October, a court in Hrodna heard the case of the “Litara” publishing house, which published books on the history of Belarus. Publishers Aliaksandr Ryžy and Illja Ryžy appeared in court under Part 3 of Article 13.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences (illegal entrepreneurial activity). Under this article, entrepreneurs will likely be deprived of the publishing license.
2. On 14 October, the Baranavičy Town and District Court repeatedly designated as “extremist materials” the book Selected Works (Minsk: Belarusian Book Collection, 1997), authored by the politician, writer, historian Vaclaū Lastoūski (1883–1938), who was executed during Stalin’s repressions. The book was already labelled as “extremist” in May 2024.
VI. Dismissals for civic activism
On 10 October, it became known that local history researcher and principal of secondary school No. 4 in Rahačoū Aliaksandr Lejkin was dismissed from his job.