As of 15 June 2025, at least 159 cultural figures, including 37 writers, were not free \u2013 imprisoned or in home confinement.<\/b><\/p>\n
Non-fiction author <\/span>Cina Pa\u0142ynskaja <\/b>and her daughter, Belarus State University student<\/span> Marho Rabinovi\u010d<\/b>, are facing criminal charges and are being held in pre-trial detention centre No. 2 in Viciebsk.<\/span><\/p>\n Former publisher <\/span>Vadzim Pa\u017eyvi\u0142ka<\/b> was sentenced to home confinement.<\/span><\/p>\n Artist and activist<\/span> Vijaleta Maj\u0161uk <\/b>from Pietryka\u016d had a new charge of “insulting the president” added to her in-absentia case.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Blogger, photographer, and cultural manager<\/span> Anton Matolka<\/b> was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison and a fine.<\/span><\/p>\n Musician<\/span> Alaksandr Chichiel <\/b>from Miadzie\u0142 was detained.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/b>1.<\/strong> On 3 June, the Hrodna Regional Court sentenced blogger, photographer, and cultural manager <\/span>Anton Matolka<\/b> in absentia to 20 years in prison and a fine of 2,000 base units (84,000 BYN or approximately 25,670 USD). He was charged under 14 articles of the Criminal Code, including “state treason”. The trial began on 14 December 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/b>2.<\/strong> On 8 June, reports emerged indicating that <\/span>Cina Pa\u0142ynskaja,<\/b> a writer of non-fiction, and her daughter<\/span> Marho Rabinovi\u010d<\/b>, who is a student at Belarus State University, are currently facing criminal charges and are held in pre-trial detention centre No. 2 in Viciebsk. Communication with <\/span>Cina Pa\u0142ynskaja <\/b>had stopped on 19 May 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n Human rights defenders believe that <\/span>Pa\u0142ynskaja<\/b> and <\/span>Rabinovi\u010d<\/b> are being prosecuted for their participation in sociological surveys conducted by the Belarusian Analytical Workroom, which the KGB designated as an “extremist organisation” on 16 May 2025 (the decision was published on 21 May). <\/span>Pa\u0142ynskaja<\/b> is known for writing family history books and researching documents in archives across Belarus and other post-Soviet countries. Her public writings reflect a humanistic and anti-war stance. In June 2022, she was fined 3,200 BYN (approx. 1,230 USD) for displaying ribbons in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, and the Investigative Committee launched proceedings over her anti-war posts on Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n On 5 June 2022, police searched her apartment. In 2023, her younger daughter was temporarily placed in a social shelter. On 6 June 2025, <\/span>Cina Pa\u0142ynskaja<\/b> and her elder daughter <\/span>Marho Rabinovi\u010d<\/b> were recognised as political prisoners.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/b>3.<\/strong> On 6 June, it was reported that the Minsk City Court sentenced former publisher <\/span>Vadzim Pa\u017eyvi\u0142ka<\/b> to home confinement (restriction of freedom without placement in a correctional facility) under Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code (financing extremist activity).<\/span><\/p>\n Vadzim Pa\u017eyvi\u0142ka, the husband of writer Ja\u016dhienija Pastarnak and a physicist by education, was the director of publishing houses specialising in children’s and popular science literature.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/b>4.<\/strong> On 8 June, reports emerged that artist and activist <\/span>Vijaleta Maj\u0161uk<\/b> from Pietryka\u016d had a new charge added to her in-absentia case under Part 1 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code (insulting the president). On 3 August 2024, the Investigative Committee launched special proceedings against her under Part 1 of Article 361-1 (creating an extremist formation). Vijaleta Maj\u0161uk has lived outside Belarus since 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/b>5.<\/strong> On 12 June, activist and cultural promoter <\/span>Nina Bahinskaja<\/b> filed an appeal with the Minsk City Court’s judicial panel against a previous court ruling. On 11 June, Bahinskaja received a court order by mail stating that everything the police confiscated during detention must be destroyed. She is demanding the return of her handmade badges and flags, which she considers her creative property.<\/span><\/p>\n On 30 May, a trial was held in Minsk’s Per\u0161amajski District Court against 78-year-old Bahinskaja under Article 342-2 of the Criminal Code (repeated violation of the procedure for organising or holding mass events) due to her display of national symbols on the streets of Minsk in 2024. The charges were based on a series of administrative offence reports and court rulings from 2024, all related to the use of national symbols. One report was issued over a T-shirt with the slogan: “No to war!”<\/span><\/p>\n Bahinskaja was found guilty of repeated violations of the law on mass events, but the court applied Article 79 of the Criminal Code (conviction without sentencing) and imposed “preventive supervision”.<\/span><\/p>\n On 4 June, musician <\/span>Alaksandr Chichiel <\/b>from Miadzie\u0142 was detained. State media channels on Telegram claimed that Chichiel allegedly “sang foolish songs against the special military operation (SMO), against our government, against Russia, and Victory Day”. Pro-Russian activist Volha Bondarava stated, citing her sources, that Chichiel was held accountable for “creating and distributing extremist content”.<\/span><\/p>\n On 3 June, reports emerged that the Babrujsk City and Babrujsk District Court designated a book titled after a quote by Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka \u2014 An idiot, a real one (2001) \u2014 as “extremist”.<\/span><\/p>\n The book is a collection of satirical works in various genres, all focused on \u0141uka\u0161enka.<\/span><\/p>\n On 10 June, the YouTube channel of musician<\/span> Alaksandr Chichiel <\/b>from Miadzie\u0142 was declared “extremist” after his detention for performing anti-war songs, following a report by pro-Russian activist Bondarava. After Chichiel’s arrest, his YouTube channel (49,000 subscribers) was deleted.<\/span><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As of 15 June 2025, at least 159 cultural figures, including 37 writers, were not free \u2013 imprisoned or in home confinement. Non-fiction author Cina Pa\u0142ynskaja and her daughter, Belarus State University student Marho Rabinovi\u010d, are facing criminal charges and are being held in pre-trial detention centre No. 2 in Viciebsk. Former publisher Vadzim Pa\u017eyvi\u0142ka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":19411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255],"tags":[4291,4285],"class_list":["post-19393","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\/19393","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\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19393"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19413,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19393\/revisions\/19413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/b>I. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers<\/b><\/h5>\n
II<\/b>. Administrative persecution\u00a0<\/b><\/h5>\n
III. Repression in the publishing sector and book bans<\/b><\/h5>\n
IV. Repression in the musical sphere<\/b><\/h5>\n