On January 15, human rights defenders recognized 14 more people as political prisoners. The total number of people currently recognized as political prisoners in Belarus is 1142.
The following names were added to the list of political prisoners:
Alena Zmushko, Illya Dzindzikau, Dzmitry Ilyukhin, Aleg Larychau, Dzmitry Karnieichyk, Veronika Mironcava, Lukerya Mironcava, Andrei Stasyukevich, Aliaksandr Chumakou, Anastasiya Hrytskevich, Maksim Sobaleu, Siarhei Manzhas, Siamion Malashenkau, Natallia Bachurynskaya.
You can find out who these people are and why human rights defenders consider their cases politically motivated here.
The list of all political prisoners in Belarus is here.
In total, according to human rights defenders, 1142 people are currently recognized as political prisoners. Recently, their total number has not significantly increased and sometimes even decreased. But this is not because repression in Belarus is diminishing – it's simply because, parallel to new cases of imprisonment in criminal cases, there is a process of releasing those convicted who have fully served their sentences. Some are also released by pardons, although new prisoners are constantly being recruited to take their place. Courts also sentence some to "home chemistry" (restricted freedom), after which the person leaves the prison walls and is no longer considered a prisoner.
It is also worth noting that the statistics do not include all those imprisoned for political reasons; the real number of Belarusian political prisoners is higher. Human rights defenders simply do not know about some of them.
Comments