As of 15 July 2023,\u00a0at least 133 cultural figures, including\u00a0not less than 31 People of the Word, were behind bars.<\/b><\/p>\n
Political prisoner artist Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin [Ales Pushkin]<\/b> died in a hospital’s intensive care unit in Hrodna after peritonitis developed due to untimely medical care. The prison officials had brought the artist to the hospital in an unconscious state with stomach ulcer perforation. His heart stopped during the surgery.<\/p>\n
Cultural manager, head of Ulej<\/b> and MolaMola<\/b> crowdfunding platforms Eduard Babaryka<\/b> was sentenced to eight years in a medium-security correctional colony.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The prosecution requested six years in prison for Paval Ma\u017eejka<\/b>, the head of Hrodna’s cultural space Urban Life Centre, journalist and coordinator of the Hrodna Library publishing initiative, and defence lawyer Julija Jurhilevi\u010d<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n An activist and prison literature author, Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d,<\/b> was scheduled to walk out free after serving his prison term. Still, a new criminal case was opened against him under Article 411 of the Criminal Code (malicious disobedience to the requirements of the correctional institution’s administration).<\/p>\n The writer, human rights defender, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ale\u015b Bialiacki<\/b> [Ales Bialiatski],<\/b> works at a wood-processing shop in the maximum-security colony No 9 in Horki \u2013 one of the strictest and “ill-fed” prisons in Belarus, according to former prisoners.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I. Politically motivated criminal cases against cultural workers, authors and performers<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n 1.<\/b> On 5 July, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced Eduard Babaryka<\/b>, a cultural manager and the head of the Ulej<\/b> and MolaMola<\/b> crowdfunding platforms, to eight years in a maximum-security penal colony. The public prosecutor dropped the charges against Eduard Babaryka under Article 235 (2) of the Criminal Code (legalisation of proceeds from crime). He also reduced the charges under Article 293 (1) (organisation of mass riots) to a lesser charge under Article 342 (1) of the Criminal Code (organisation of actions that grossly violate public order).<\/p>\n 2. <\/b>It became known on 6 July that bard Aliaksiej Iljin\u010dyk<\/b> was moved to a penal colony in Navasady. Aliaksiej Iljin\u010dyk is the author of the books “From Leshki to Leshiy” (2000), “FAS” (2000), “A Happy Man” (2002), “Leshki Forever! Part 1” (2002), “You Know…” (2004). On 28 March 2023, the Homiel Regional Court sentenced him to two and a half years in a low-security penal colony under Article 367 (2) of the Criminal Code (defamation of the President), Article 368 (1) of the Criminal Code (insulting the President) and Article 130 (1) of the Criminal Code (inciting enmity and discord).<\/p>\n 3.<\/b><\/span> On 10 July, the Hrodna Regional Court began hearing the case of Paval Ma\u017eejka<\/b>, the head of the cultural space Urban Life Centre in Hrodna, journalist, coordinator of the Hrodna Library publishing initiative, and Julija Jurhilevi\u010d<\/b>, artist Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin’s defence attorney. The two are charged under Article 361.4 (2) of the Criminal Code, which deals with the “facilitation of extremist activity, committed repeatedly by a group of persons as part of a premeditated conspiracy.” The trial is taking place behind closed doors. According to the case file, Julija Jurhilevi\u010d revealed information to Paval Ma\u017eejka about the revocation of her lawyer’s license, her exclusion from the Hrodna Regional Bar Association, the criminal case against artist Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin at the Minsk City Court and the verdict. Paval Ma\u017eejka is accused of passing this information on to unidentified persons for publication on the Belsat TV channel in February-March 2022. The prosecution treats his actions “as committed by a group of people in a premeditated conspiracy with Julija Jurhilevi\u010d.” On 14 July, the prosecutor demanded six years of imprisonment for Paval Ma\u017eejka and Julija Jurhilevi\u010d.<\/p>\n 4.<\/b><\/span> On 10 July, Hrodna’s Leninski District Court sentenced the founder of the Cudo\u016dnia ethnic store Andrej Niesciarovi\u010d<\/b> to one year of suspended home confinement. Cudo\u016dnia has operated in Hrodna since 2015. In 2020, the employees of the ethnic store supported peaceful protests against the falsified election results. On 26 October 2020, Cudo\u016dnia remained closed in solidarity with the declared all-Belarusian strike. Eventually, it faced repression and fines before losing its premises on 3 December 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 5.<\/b> On 11 July 2023, civil activist and prison literature writer Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d<\/b> was scheduled to walk out free after fully serving his term. However, a new criminal case was opened against him under Article 411 of the Criminal Code (malicious disobedience to the requirements of the correctional institution’s administration). He was sent to a prison in \u017dodzina. Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d and his wife, Nasta Da\u0161kievi\u010d, were tried for participating in a street protest on 23 August 2020. They were charged under Article 342 (1) of the Criminal Code (group actions that grossly violate public order). During the investigation, while Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d was behind bars, Nasta Da\u0161kievi\u010d gave birth to her fourth child. On 14 July 2022, Minsk’s Masko\u016dski District Court sentenced Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d to one and a half years in a penal colony and Nasta Da\u0161kievi\u010d\u00a0 <\/span>– to three years of home confinement. During his last word at court, Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d stated that the police officers tortured his Belarusian language: “…During the arrest, they beat me in front of my pregnant wife and said: ‘What is this person saying? Let him speak normally. Let him speak normally.” Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d is the author of the prison literature book \u010carviak (Worm), for which in 2014 he became the laureate of the Franci\u0161ak Aliachnovi\u010d Award, founded by the Belarusian PEN Centre jointly with Radio Liberty for the best work written in prison. In 2016, he organised a collection of signatures under an appeal to the Ministry of Culture to give the white-red-white flag the status of intangible historical and cultural heritage.<\/p>\n II. Politically motivated administrative detentions and arrests of cultural workers, authors and performers<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n At Belarusian border posts, cultural workers are interrogated, have their belongings searched, and their phones checked. During interrogations, KGB officers demand them to tell about the cultural events they visited and their contacts abroad. Some are punished with administrative arrests and fines.<\/p>\n III.\u00a0Trials and arrests for using Belarusian and Ukrainian national symbols<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n 1. <\/b>On 5 July, a kebab shop chef with Ukraine’s coat of arms on his arm was detained in Minsk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2. <\/b>On 13 July, an entrepreneur was detained in Minsk for having a license plate frame with the “Pahonia” (Pursuit) emblem on his car. He was accused of “displaying prohibited symbols on a private car.”<\/p>\n 3.<\/b> An employee of the Nova System company was detained in Minsk for a tattoo with the “Pursuit” emblem, reported by someone in the subway.<\/p>\n IV. Conditions in places of detention, tortures of prisoners<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n 1.<\/b> Political prisoner artist Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin [Ales Pushkin]<\/b> died in a hospital’s intensive care unit in Hrodna after peritonitis developed due to untimely medical care. The prison officials had brought the artist to the hospital in an unconscious state with stomach ulcer perforation. His heart stopped during the surgery. Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin began experiencing severe pain in mid-June 2023, but prison doctors did not pay due attention to it and accused the artist of faking the disease. Convicted under Article 370 of the Criminal Code (desecration of state symbols) and Article 130 of the Criminal Code (incitement to hatred or discord), Pu\u0161kin was sentenced to five years in a maximum-security penal colony. The criminal case against him was based on the portrait of the anti-Soviet resistance figure Ja\u016dhien \u017dychar exhibited at the independent cultural space Urban Life Centre on 19 March 2021. According to the prosecutor’s office, at the exhibition, Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin “described \u017dychar as a member of the Belarusian resistance and a fighter against the Bolsheviks, thus glorifying and approving his actions.” In November – December 2021, Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin was sent for a psychiatric examination. In August 2022, the correctional facility’s administration placed the artist in a ward-type room for five months. On 11 November 2022, Ivacevi\u010dy District Court ruled to change the imprisonment routine for Ale\u015b Pu\u0161kin from the correctional colony regime to the prison regime for one and a half years. Shortly after, he was moved to prison No. 1 in Hrodna. Ale\u0161 Pu\u0161kin is a famous Belarusian artist, laureate of the 2019 Franci\u0161ak Alachnovi\u010d Award for “Prison Album”. For more than 30 years, he advocated for protecting the Belarusian language and held performances for freedom of expression in Belarus.<\/p>\n Ale\u0161 Pu\u0161kin served numerous administrative arrest terms for artistic actions. Several times, police officers beat him during detention.<\/p>\n