On July 13, human rights defenders recognized 7 more people as political prisoners. The total number of people currently recognized as political prisoners in Belarus is 860.
The following names have been added to the list of political prisoners:
Alena Svirydzenka, Ihar Svirydzenka, Pavel Kucheryn, Aliaksandr Pelesh, Aliaksei Ihnatsenka, Yauhen Tsimashuk, Aliaksei Ramasiuk.
Who these people are and why human rights defenders consider their cases politically motivated can be found here.
The list of all political prisoners in Belarus is here.
In total, as of now, 860 people have been recognized as political prisoners, according to human rights defenders. Recently, their total number has not significantly increased and has even decreased, sometimes noticeably. However, this is not because repression in Belarus is decreasing — it is simply that alongside new cases of imprisonment on criminal charges, there is a process of releasing those convicted who have fully served their sentences. Some are also released on pardons, including through US mediation, although new prisoners are constantly being recruited to take their place. Courts also sentence some to "restricted freedom" (non-custodial sentence), after which the person leaves prison and is therefore no longer considered a prisoner.
It should also be noted that the statistics do not include all those imprisoned for political reasons; the actual number of Belarusian political prisoners is higher. Human rights defenders simply have no information about some.
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