{"id":13619,"date":"2023-12-04T12:24:03","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T12:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=13619"},"modified":"2024-01-25T13:32:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T13:32:38","slug":"hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-15-30-listapada-2023-goda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2023\/12\/04\/hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-15-30-listapada-2023-goda.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronicle of human rights violations in the sphere of culture (15-30 November 2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of 30 November 2023, at least 146 cultural figures, including not less than 32 People of the Word, were behind bars.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the verdict of eight years in a medium-security penal colony for cultural manager Eduard Babaryka<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Tour guide Yury Kraso<\/b>\u016dski <\/b>was arrested for 15 days.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sviatlana Jaskievi\u010d<\/b>, Master of Pedagogical Sciences, was detained for “posting protest symbols on social media.”<\/p>\n

The director of the Elitsoft IT company, Yury Bal,<\/b> was detained for using the white-red-white national symbols.<\/p>\n

Correspondence and parcels remain restricted for the imprisoned writer, human rights defender, and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ale\u015b Bialiacki<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Imprisoned activist and author of prison literature, Ihar Alinievi\u010d<\/b> is deprived of food parcels, meetings with relatives, and phone calls.<\/p>\n

Public figure and author of prison literature Aliaksandr Franckievi\u010d<\/b>, is kept in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n

Blogger, non-fiction internet author, and civic activist Paval Vinahrada<\/b>\u016d <\/b><\/span>was held for six months in punitive confinement at the penal colony No. 11 in Va\u016d<\/span>kavysk.<\/p>\n

Repressions are on the rise against the families of cultural figures who had to leave Belarus over politically motivated.<\/p>\n

I. Politically motivated criminal cases against cultural workers, authors and performers<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/b> On 22 November, the Supreme Court considered the appeals of video cameraman Via\u010dasla<\/b>\u016d<\/b><\/span> Lazara<\/b>\u016d<\/b><\/span> and his wife, Russian language teacher and mother of three children, Tacciana Py\u0107ko<\/b>. The Supreme Court reduced the initial charges and released a new sentence under Art. 361.1 (3) of the Criminal Code (participation in an extremist formation). Via\u010dasla\u016d<\/span> Lazara\u016d<\/span> will serve five years in a minimum-security penal colony instead of 5.5 years. Tacciana Py\u0107ko, sentenced by the regional court under Art. 361.4 (1) of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activities) received three years in prison with a three-year suspension under the Supreme Court’s ruling. As a result of the appeal, Tacciana Py\u0107ko was released from custody.<\/p>\n

2.<\/b> On 27 November, the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the verdict for cultural manager Eduard Babaryka<\/b> \u2013 eight years in a medium-security penal colony.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

II. Politically motivated administrative detentions and arrests of cultural workers, authors and performers<\/b><\/p>\n

1.<\/b> On 30 November, it became known that Vasil Paliako<\/b>\u016d<\/b><\/span> walked out free from a detention centre in Homiel. Detained on 1 November, he stood trial on 3 November and was sentenced under Art. 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (disseminating extremist materials) to 15 days of administrative arrest. On 11 November, Homiel’s Saviecki District Court again found him guilty of “disseminating extremist materials.” A former history teacher, Vasil Paliako\u016d,<\/span> was fired for political reasons.<\/p>\n

2.<\/b> On 15 November, tour guide Yury Kraso<\/b>\u016dski <\/b><\/span>was detained in his home in Kareli\u010dy. A local court ruled to arrest Yury for 15 days under Art. 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (distribution, production, storage, and transportation of information products that contain calls to extremist activities or promote such activities).<\/p>\n

III.\u00a0Trials and arrests for using Belarusian and Ukrainian national symbols<\/b><\/p>\n

1.<\/b> On 22 November, the Master of Pedagogical Sciences Sviatlana Jaskievi\u010d<\/b> was detained in Minsk for “posting protest symbols on social media, discussing in courtyard chats the possibility of participating in unauthorised events.”<\/p>\n

2.<\/b> On 26 November, a man was violently detained in Va\u016d<\/span>kavysk. He appeared in a police video saying that the reason for his detention was the national white-red-white symbols he had published on the Internet.<\/p>\n

3.<\/b> On 30 November, the director of the IT company Elitsoft, Yury Bal,<\/b> was detained in Homiel for using the white-red-white national symbols.<\/p>\n

IV. Conditions in places of detention, tortures of prisoners<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/b> On 15 November, it became known that the imprisoned activist and author of prison literature, Ihar Alinievi\u010d,<\/b> is deprived of food parcels, meetings with relatives, and phone calls. The medical care package sent by his mother, Valiancina Alinievi\u010d, was also returned. In 2013, Ihar Alinievi\u010d<\/b> received the main award for the best work written in prison to become the first laureate of the Franci\u0161ak Aliachnovi\u010d literary award, founded by Pen Belarus and Radio Svaboda (Radio Liberty), for the book I’m Going to Magadan. On 22 December 2021, Ihar Alinievi\u010d was sentenced to 20 years.<\/p>\n

2.<\/b> Public figure and author of prison literature Aliaksandr Franckievi\u010d<\/b> is held in solitary confinement (cell-type room) in colony No. 5 in Ivacevi\u010dy. On 6 September 2022, he was sentenced to 17 years in a maximum-security penal colony and a fine of 700 basic units (BYN22,400 or more than $8,800). It was the second time that Aliaksandr Franckievi\u010d was recognised as a political prisoner – the first time was in 2011. In 2013, he became the laureate of the Franci\u0161ak Aliachnovi\u010d literary award for the short story Hug Me Tighter. The award, founded by Pen Belarus and Radio Svaboda (Radio Liberty), is given for the best work written in prison.<\/p>\n

3.<\/b> For six months, blogger, author, and civic activist Paval Vinahrada<\/b>\u016d<\/b><\/span> was held in punitive confinement at penal colony No. 11 in Va\u016d<\/span>kavysk. His wife Sviatlana wrote on her Facebook page: “He spent the last almost six months out of seven in punitive confinement with short breaks. He has now received two months of cell-type room. His consciousness is clear. He is young, handsome, smart – this is what the prison spiders whispered to me. It\u2019s a maximum-security prison. They don’t bake potatoes here; they bake people here.” On 16 March 2022, Paval Vinahrada\u016d<\/span> was sentenced to five years in prison.<\/p>\n

4.<\/b> Correspondence and parcels remain restricted for the imprisoned writer, human rights defender, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ale\u015b Bialiacki<\/b>.<\/p>\n

V. Repressions against cultural figures’ family members<\/b><\/p>\n

On 30 November, the parental house of the researcher and populariser of Belarusian history and culture, Aliaksiej Trubkin<\/b>, was searched in Navapolack. He left Belarus in 2006 over political persecution.<\/p>\n

VI. Repressions against cultural figures who left Belarus<\/b><\/p>\n

The property of the former owner of the Belarusian souvenir shop Cudo<\/i>\u016dnaja Krama<\/i> (Wonderful Shop)<\/span>, the editor of the Or\u0161a independent news portal Orsha.eu Ihar Kazmier\u010dak<\/b>, was distrained. He has not lived in Belarus since 2021.<\/p>\n

VII. Censorship and self-censorship<\/b><\/p>\n

On 26 November, the birthday of the classic of Belarusian literature Uladzimir Karatkievi\u010d, there was no poetry reading in Or\u0161a near the writer’s monument in the “Fairy Land” park. In the past, activists and fans of the writer’s work regularly organised such readings. Since 2020, many participants in previous readings have undergone repression for civic activism.<\/p>\n

VIII. <\/b>Repressions in the language field<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

On the roads of Belarus, the names of the cities written in Latin letters in Belarusian are removed from the signposts. The authorities perceive Belarusian Latin as an influence of Western culture and a danger to the current ideology, dominated by the ideas of the “Russian world.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As of 30 November 2023, at least 146 cultural figures, including not less than 32 People of the Word, were behind bars. The Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the verdict of eight years in a medium-security penal colony for cultural manager Eduard Babaryka. Tour guide Yury Kraso\u016dski was arrested for 15 days.\u00a0 Sviatlana Jaskievi\u010d, Master<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":13620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255],"tags":[4291,4285],"class_list":["post-13619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-right","tag-chronicle","tag-hronika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13619"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13631,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13619\/revisions\/13631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}