As of 31 October 2024, at least 168 cultural figures, including not less than 38 People of Word, were behind bars.
Journalist and co-author of the documentary book Belarusian Donbas (2020), Ihar Iljaš, was detained and placed in a pre-trial detention centre.
Artists Liudmila Ščamialiova and Ihar Rymašeŭski, a married couple, were arrested.
The Supreme Court upheld the sentence in absentia for writer, journalist and human rights defender Uladzimir Chilmanovič.
Civic and cultural activist Nina Bahinskaja was detained.
Anžalika Pilat, who taught Belarusian to Roman Catholic priests, was found guilty in an administrative hearing in Braslaŭ.
Three actors from the Theatre of Belarusian Dramaturgy’s main troupe were detained.
Belarusfilm actor Uladzislaŭ Lipoŭski was detained in Minsk.
Political prisoner and prison literature author Mikola Dziadok has been held in punitive confinement for four months.
A concert scheduled for 3 November to commemorate the ancestors (Dziady) at the Reactor Club in Minsk was cancelled.
The website of the cultural project Tuzin Hitoŭ (A Dozen Hits) was blocked in Belarus.
One of Belarus’s largest foreign-languages schools, Streamline, was liquidated.
I. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers
1. On 22 October 2024, it became known that Ihar Iljaš, a journalist and co-author of the documentary book Belarusian Donbas (Kaciaryna Andrejeva, Ihar Iljaš. Белорусский Донбасс. 2020. ISBN: 978-966-03-9020-1), written together with his wife Kaciaryna Andrejeva (Bachvalava), was detained in Minsk. Kaciaryna has been in prison since 2020, when she was convicted in a politically motivated case. The footage of the apartment break-in shows that four police commandos were deployed to detain Ihar Iljas. On 30 October 2024, it became known that Ihar Iljaš was transferred to a pre-trial detention centre in Kaliadzičy. It means that he was officially charged with a crime. In 2021, the book Belarusian Donbas was labelled as “extremist” in Belarus. It contains the stories of Belarusian citizens who fought on the side of Ukraine and the Russian occupation forces since the war began in 2014.
2. On 25 October, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence in absentia for writer, journalist, and human rights defender Uladzimir Chilmanovič. On 19 August, the Hrodna Regional Court convicted Uladzimir Chilmanovič in absentia under Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activities), Part 3, Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code (participating in an extremist formation). It sentenced him to five years in a medium-security penal colony and a fine of 1,000 basic units (40,000 BYN, or $12,247).
II. Detentions and administrative trials
1. On 19 October, it became known about the detention of three actors from the Theatre of Belarusian Dramaturgy’s main troupe. The actors were sentenced to 13 days of arrest under Article 19.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences (petty hooliganism).
2. On 19 October, civic and cultural activist Nina Bahinskaja was detained in Minsk when she came to the city centre with a “Belarusian Popular Front” poster to remind members of the public that it was on 19 October 1988 that the “Martyrologist of Belarus” (predecessor of Belarusian human rights organisations) and the Organizing Committee of the Belarusian Popular Front “Revival”, which initiated democratic changes in Belarus, were founded. Nina Bahinskaja was detained at the corner of Independence Avenue and Kazlova Street. The woman was brought to the Saviecki district police station, where a police officer handcuffed her, twisting her hands behind her back. She was kept in handcuffs at the police station for almost three hours and let go only around 10 p.m. The hearing of Nina Bahinskaja’s administrative case will occur at the Belarusian capital’s Saviecki District Court.
3. On 23 October, a court in Braslaŭ found Anžalika Pilat, a graduate of the Faculty of Belarusian Philology and Culture, writer for Catholic publications, and teacher of the Belarusian language for Catholic priests, guilty under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (dissemination of extremist materials).
4. On 26 October, it became known that the married couple of artists Liudmila Ščamialiova and Ihar Rymašeŭski was arrested in Minsk. It is yet to be known what they are accused of.
5. On 28 October, it became known that Belarusfilm actor Uladzislaŭ Lipoŭski was detained in Minsk because he subscribed to news channels designated as “extremist”, shared their posts, and left negative comments about the police.
III. Conditions in the places of incarceration
1. Mikola Dziadok, a political prisoner and the author of prison literature, has been in punitive confinement for four months. A new criminal case was opened against him under Part 1 of Article 411 of the Criminal Code (malicious disobedience to the prison administration).
2. Political prisoner, public figure, author of poems, and singer Siarhiei Cichanoŭski has been held incommunicado for 600 days – in complete isolation from the world.
IV. Censorship
1. On 30 October, the concert “Dziady,” scheduled for 3 November to mark the traditional Belarusian day of honouring ancestors, was cancelled in the Reactor club in Minsk. The lineup included musician Ivan Kirčuk, singer Iva Sativa, and a cappella folk group Guda. “We have just received a letter about the cancellation of the tour certificate,” the organisers wrote on social media.
2. On 28 October, the cultural project Tuzin Hitoŭ (A Dozen Hits) website was blocked in Belarus. Also blocked were specific pages dedicated to the projects “UNexecuted”, “Reboot”, “Last Sunrise”, “Sing BY”, “Telebooth”, “Dozen. Baby”, “Re:Piesniary”, “100 greatest Belarusian songs”, and the commemorating Anatol Sys, Siaržuk Vituška, Michal Aniempadystaŭ, and others.
V. Repressions in the book-publishing sector
On 23 October, the Ministry of Information sent a circular to Belarusian organisations that distribute printed publications with a “request” to clean up their assortment and eliminate “literature capable of harming the national interests of the Republic of Belarus.”
VI. Closure of educational centres
Streamline, one of the largest language schools in Belarus, has been liquidated. At the beginning of October, Financial Investigations Department agents came to the Streamline office with a search, after which the internal servers and the business management platform with all devices and resources were disabled. Bank accounts were also blocked. Teachers could not receive their salaries, and students could not pay for their studies.