Over 160 sentenced in politically-motivated criminal cases in April – Viasna
May 14, Pozirk. At least 161 people, including 50 women, were convicted in politically-motivated criminal cases in April, almost as many as in March, when 165 such convictions were reported, according to the Viasna Human Rights Center.
Human rights activists have details of 44 such cases.
The highest number of convictions, 83, was in Minsk, followed by the Brest region with 36 convictions, the Hrodna region with 12 convictions, and the Homiel and Minsk regions with 10 convictions each. Judges handed down eight politically-motivated convictions in the Mahiloŭ region and two in the Viciebsk region.
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Charges against 102 people included violent disorder.
According to the report, authorities in different regions are using this charge in different ways against participants in the 2020 protests. In Minsk, they usually sentence them to restricted freedom, a type of home confinement. However, several group trials in Brest and Baranavičy, related to the spontaneous peaceful assemblies in these cities in August 2020, ended with real prison sentences for most of the defendants.
The human rights activists said that in April, “the judicial conveyor belt handed down special procedure verdicts en masse.” “The prosecution of entire families or groups of relatives for taking part in peaceful protests” continued, as did “an extremely negative trend of repeated and subsequent convictions of previously repressed citizens.”