{"id":16652,"date":"2024-08-02T12:34:40","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T12:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=16652"},"modified":"2024-09-03T16:24:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T16:24:34","slug":"hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-15-31-lipenya-2024-goda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2024\/08\/02\/hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-15-31-lipenya-2024-goda.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronicle of human rights violations in the sphere of culture (15-31 July 2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of\u00a031 July\u00a02024, at least 163\u00a0cultural figures, including not less than 38\u00a0People of the Word, were behind bars.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Illustrator Natalla Levaja<\/strong> was sentenced to six years and a considerable fine.<\/p>\n

Cultural blogger Ale\u015b Sabale\u016bski<\/strong> received four years in a minimum-security penal colony, documentary filmmaker Ja\u016bhien H\u0142u\u0161ako\u016b<\/strong> \u2013 three years in a minimum-security colony. Each of them also was sentenced to a fine of 200 base rates or 8000 BYN (~ $2440).<\/p>\n

The criminal trial of human rights defender, writer, and journalist U<\/strong>\u0142<\/strong>adzimir Chilmanovi\u010d <\/strong>began in the Hrodna district court.<\/p>\n

Criminal cases were opened against the mother and aunt of the prison literature author, Alaksandr Franckievi\u010d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Roman Catholic priest And\u017eej Juchnievi\u010d<\/strong> is behind bars. He posted national symbols and prayed for the people of Ukraine on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Police searched the seized flat of a local history enthusiast and editor of the orsha.eu website, Ihar Kazmier\u010dak<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\u0406. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers<\/strong><\/h5>\n

1.<\/strong> On 17 July, the Brest Regional Court convicted illustrator Natalla Levaja<\/strong> was convicted under criminal charges for donating to solidarity initiatives and funds and received six years in a minimum-security penal colony and a fine of 1,000 base rates, or 40,000 BYN (~$12,216). The trial was held behind closed doors. Natalla Levaja was found guilty under Part 2 of Article 361.1 of the Criminal Code (financing extremist activities) and Part 2, Article 361.3 of the Criminal Code (funding the participation in combat on the territory of a foreign state).<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> On 27 July, the Hrodna District Court started a criminal trial of human rights defender, writer, and journalist U<\/strong>\u0142<\/strong>adzimir Chilmanovi\u010d<\/strong> in absentia under Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 361.4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activities) and Part 3 of Article 361.1 of the Criminal Code (participating in an extremist formation).<\/p>\n

On 31 July, the Mahilio\u016b Regional Court sentenced cultural blogger Ale\u015b Sabale\u016bski<\/strong> to four years and documentary filmmaker Ja\u016bhien H\u0142u\u0161ko\u016b<\/strong> to three years in a minimum-security penal colony, as well as a fine in the amount of 200 base rates, or 8,000 BYN (~ $2,440) each. Ale\u015b Sabale\u016bski and Ja\u016bhien H\u0142u\u0161ko\u016b were convicted under three articles of the Criminal Code: Part 1, Article 361.3 (participating as a citizen of the Republic of Belarus in combat on the territory of a foreign state without authorisation by the state), Part 1, Article 361.1 (creating an extremist formation), Part 3 of Article 361.1 (participating in an extremist formation).<\/p>\n

II. Persecution of family members of politically imprisoned cultural figures and writers <\/strong><\/h5>\n

On 19 July, police in Va\u016bkavysk detained Tacciana Franckievi\u010d<\/strong>, the mother of political prisoner and prison literature author Alaksandr Franckievi\u010d<\/strong>, and her sister Natalla <\/strong>\u0141<\/strong>abacevi\u010d<\/strong>. The detention occurred at penal colony No 11, where they had brought a parcel for Alaksandr. A criminal case was opened against the two ladies under Article 361.4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activities). Alaksandr Franckievi\u010d is an anarchist movement activist, writer, and author of prison literature. He was repeatedly subjected to administrative and criminal prosecution for his civil position and participation in protests and has been recognised as a political prisoner twice. Behind bars, he wrote two short stories, The Diary of a Lost Girl and Hug Me Tighter<\/em>. The stories were included in the book\u00a0Voice of Freedom from Behind Bars<\/em>.\u00a0Anthology of works of Belarusian political prisoners<\/em>\u00a0(Vilnius, 2013). In 2013, for the short story\u00a0Hug Me Tighter<\/em>, Alaksandr Franckievi\u010d became the laureate of the Franci\u0161ak Alachnovi\u010d Award, founded jointly by PEN Belarus and Radio Svaboda, given for the best work written in prison. Alaksandr Franckievi\u010d was arrested on August 13, 2020. On September 6, 2022, the Minsk City Court sentenced Alaksandr Franckievi\u010d to 17 years in a medium-security penal colony and fined him 22,400 BYN (over $8,800).<\/p>\n

III. Repressions for Belarusian and Ukrainian national symbols<\/strong><\/h5>\n

And\u017eej Juchnievi\u010d<\/strong>, a Roman Catholic priest from \u0160umilina, has been behind bars since 8 May. Following several administrative arrests, a criminal case was opened against him. On 10 May, Viciebsk\u2019s Pier\u0161amajski District Court sentenced him to his first arrest of 15 days for a “picket on social media.” During the trial, And\u017eej Juchnievi\u010d confirmed that he was a Facebook user and had an account where he posted a photo on a white-red-white background. He admitted that he had posted an image of the national Ukrainian flag. The website of the Oblate missionaries published And\u017eej Juchnievi\u010d’s statement about the war against Ukraine. It reads: “I want to express our deep solidarity and spiritual support to our brothers in Ukraine and the entire Ukrainian people. […] We decided to pray every day together with our parishioners for the conversion to the faith of Russia and Belarus and the immediate end of the war in Ukraine.”<\/p>\n

IV. Conditions in places of confinement <\/strong><\/h5>\n

On 24 July, it became known that the local history enthusiast and activist U<\/strong>\u0142<\/strong>adzimir Hundar<\/strong> was once again denied a short meeting with family, which was supposed to be in September. The prison administration did not reveal the reason for punishment. Uladzimir Hundar is a political prisoner with a Grade 2 disability (he has no legs), convicted in the “A\u016btuchovi\u010d<\/strong> case” and sentenced to 20 years in a medium-security penal colony. Behind bars, he writes poems in Belarusian.<\/p>\n

V. Prosecution of cultural figures who fled Belarus due to political persecution <\/strong><\/h5>\n

On 23 July, police searched the flat of the editor of the orsha.eu website, local historian, actor by education Ihar Kazmier\u010dak<\/strong> in Or\u0161a. In 2021, he was forced to leave Belarus under the threat of criminal prosecution. The searched flat was arrested in 2023 on orders from the Investigative Committee. Ihar Kazmier\u010dak is a defendant in the criminal case initiated against persons who were associated with the independent media outlets labelled as “extremist formations”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As of\u00a031 July\u00a02024, at least 163\u00a0cultural figures, including not less than 38\u00a0People of the Word, were behind bars.\u00a0 Illustrator Natalla Levaja was sentenced to six years and a considerable fine. Cultural blogger Ale\u015b Sabale\u016bski received four years in a minimum-security penal colony, documentary filmmaker Ja\u016bhien H\u0142u\u0161ako\u016b \u2013 three years in a minimum-security colony. Each of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":16704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255],"tags":[4291,4285],"class_list":["post-16652","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\/16652","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\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16652"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16706,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16652\/revisions\/16706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}