{"id":9784,"date":"2026-03-20T15:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=9784"},"modified":"2026-03-21T17:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T17:10:17","slug":"valeryya-kasczyugava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2026\/03\/20\/valeryya-kasczyugava.html","title":{"rendered":"Valeryja Kasciuhova (released on March 20, 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Political persecution:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">On June 30, 2021, Valeryja Kasciuhova was arrested after a search of her apartment and placed in a Pre-trial Detention Center No. 1 in Minsk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Valeryja Kasciuhova was accused under Art. 361 of the Criminal Code \u2013 Calls for actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus, as well as Part 1 of Art. 357 of the Criminal Code \u2013 Conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">On July 20, 2021, she was recognized as a political prisoner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">On February 6, 2023, the trial of the criminal case of Valeryja Kasciuhova and researcher Ta\u0107ciana Kuzina began in open mode in the Minsk City Court. Valeryja Kasciuhova is accused on the basis of part 3 of Art. 361 of the Criminal Code (calls for actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus); part 1 of Art. 357 of the Criminal Code (conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means); part 3 of Art. 130 of the Criminal Code (inciting social enmity).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">On March 17, 2023, the Minsk City Court handed down a verdict in the criminal cases of researchers Valeryja Kasciuhova and Ta\u0107ciana Kuzina. Both were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment in a low-security colony, found guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code: part 1 of Art. 357 (assistance to actions aimed at seizing power), part 3 of Art. 361 (inciting for actions aimed at harming national security) and part 3 of Art. 130 (inciting social enmity).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">On August 11, 2023, she was included in the \u201cList of citizens of Belarus, foreign citizens, and stateless persons involved in extremist activities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>On August 31, 2023, the KGB included Valeryja Kasciuhova in the \u201cList of organizations and individuals involved in terrorist activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Valeryja Kasciuhova<\/span> was released on 20 March 2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Creative activity:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The founder and editor of the website of the expert community Nashe Mnieniye, the editor and author of the collection of analytical reviews about the development of the situation in Belarus for the year Belorusskiy ezhegodnik, the head of the monitoring group of experts Bielarus v fokusie.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Political scientist, editor, author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":9787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4310],"class_list":["post-9784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bylyya_lyudzi_slova_u_nyavoli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9784","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9784"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22042,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9784\/revisions\/22042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}