History
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The Belarusian administrative code was updated on 1 March 2021, strengthening penalties for several actions in relation to civil disobedience. [1]
The Administrative Code of Belarus is the set of laws that codify administrative law in Belarus. [1] [2]
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2022) |
The Belarusian administrative code was updated on 1 March 2021, strengthening penalties for several actions in relation to civil disobedience. [1]
Since 1 March 2021, Section 24 of the administrative code includes articles covering civil disobedience. Participation in unsanctioned mass events is punishable by up to 15 days of arrest, or up to 30 days if the offense is repeated, under Article 24.23. Community service from eight to 60 hours can be given as an alternative sentence. [1]
Disobedience to a lawful demand of an official, in practice during political protests, is punishable under Article 24.3. The "illegal use and manufacture of flags and symbols" is punishable under Article 24.26. [1]
The intentional infliction of bodily harm or other violence that causes insignificant injury is publishable by a fine or administrative arrest under Article 9.1 of the code. [2]
As of 2022, court cases in Belarus are often scheduled ten minutes apart from one another [3] and can conclude in as little three minutes, [4] and have been criticized for being "not a court". [5] Consistently from 2016 through 2020, trials resulting in a guilty verdict occurred at a frequency of 99.7% and 99.8%. [6]
A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so they will serve as both an impressive example and a warning to other would-be dissidents or transgressors.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) is a Belarusian professional association of journalists from independent media, created in 1995 to protect freedom of speech, freedom of information, promote the professional standards of journalism, conduct monitoring of Belarusian press, and offer legal support to all media workers.
Censorship in Belarus, although prohibited by the country's constitution, is enforced by a number of laws. These include a law that makes insulting the president punishable by up to five years in prison, and another that makes criticizing Belarus abroad punishable by up to two years in prison.
The Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus contains the fundamental laws to announce what is considered illegal to perform inside Belarus. Passed in 1999, several of these laws were carried over from laws passed in 1960 as the Byelorussian SSR. In the 1999 edition, the Criminal code contains passages of crimes that can be issued capital punishment upon sentencing.
The government of Belarus is criticized for its human rights violations and persecution of non-governmental organisations, independent journalists, national minorities, and opposition politicians. In a testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labeled Belarus as one of the world's six "outposts of tyranny". In response, the Belarusian government called the assessment "quite far from reality". During 2020 Belarusian presidential election and protests, the number of political prisoners recognized by Viasna Human Rights Centre rose dramatically to 1062 as of 16 February 2022. Several people died after the use of unlawful and abusive force by law enforcement officials during 2020 protests. According to Amnesty International, the authorities didn't investigate violations during protests but instead harassed those who challenged their version of events. In July 2021, the authorities launched a campaign against the remaining non-governmental organizations, liquidating at least 270 of them by October, including all previously registered human rights organizations in the country.
The Belarusian Private News Agency or shortly BelaPAN is a non-governmental independent Belarusian news agency, one of the main in the country. BelaPAN provides news on politics, economy, and sports from Belarus in Russian, Belarusian and English. The staff includes a wide net of reporters and correspondents.
Tut.By was an independent news, media and service internet portal, one of the five most popular websites in Belarus in the Russian language, and the most popular news web portal in the country. After its owning company was closed down by the Minsk Economic Court in June 2022, for being "extremist", its successor Zerkalo.io remains online as of September 2022.
The 2020–2021 Belarusian protests were a series of mass political demonstrations and protests against the Belarusian government and President Alexander Lukashenko. The largest anti-government protests in the history of Belarus, the demonstrations began in the lead-up to and during the 2020 presidential election, in which Lukashenko sought his sixth term in office. In response to the demonstrations, a number of relatively small pro-government rallies were held.
Maria Kalesnikava is a Belarusian professional flutist and political activist. In 2020, she headed Viktor Babariko’s electoral campaign during presidential elections of 2020 in Belarus. Kalesnikava represented the united campaign of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, then she became a member of the presidium of the Coordination Council formed during the 2020 Belarusian protests in opposition to the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. She is also a founder of the ‘Razam’ political party.
Raman Bandarenka was an aspiring Belarusian designer, and shop manager. His death is associated with the protests against the 2020 Belarusian presidential election. Raman Bandarenka died after reportedly being beaten by security forces. Police forces said they found him uncounscious and called an ambulance.
Mikola Dziadok is a Belarusian journalist, anarchist activist, blogger, and political prisoner. He was released in 2015 and became in involved in the 2020 Belarusian protests. He was arrested by authorities and is currently again a political prisoner. On November 10, 2021, Dziadok was sentenced to five years in a general-security penal colony and is held in Prison Number 8.
The 2022 Belarusian constitutional referendum was held in Belarus on 27 February 2022.
Nexta is a Belarusian media outlet that is primarily distributed through Telegram and YouTube channels. The YouTube channel was founded by then 17-year-old student Stsiapan Putsila. The channel's headquarters are located in Warsaw, Poland, after its founder went into exile.
Andrei Zeltser, a Belarusian IT worker, was killed in Minsk on 28 September 2021 by members of the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus who conducted a raid on his apartment. After a door breaching, a shootout took place, in which Zeltser fatally shot one of the agents, and was subsequently killed by the KGB members. Zeltser was subsequently called a "terrorist" by the government. According to the state-owned Belarusian Telegraph Agency, "members of an extremist group with ties to the opposition, supposedly, lived in the apartment", referring to Zeltser, 31, and his wife, who was arrested.
Dzianis Jaŭhienavič Ivashyn is a Belarusian journalist. He works as a freelance correspondent of Belarusian Novy Chas newspaper and a volunteer investigator of the Ukrainian Inform Napalm project. He was arrested in 2021 by the Belarusian KGB and charged with high treason. His colleagues believe that this arrest was connected with his publications about former Ukrainian Berkut members employed by the Belarusian police.
Jahor Aljaksandravič Marcinovič is a Belarusian journalist who is currently serving as chief editor of Nasha Niva since 2017. In July 2021 he was arrested for alleged debts of the newspaper to the electric company, estimated damage amounted to 10,000 Belarusian rubles ($3000). On March 15, 2022, he was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. Human rights activists in Belarus have recognized him as a political prisoner.
On 11 March 2022, Mark Izraylevich Bernstein, a Belarusian blogger and editor of the Russian-language Wikipedia, based in Minsk, was detained by the Belarusian GUBOPiK security force after online accusations of violating the 2022 Russian fake news law for his editing of Wikipedia articles on the topic of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was sentenced to 15 days' administrative arrest under Article 24.3 of the Administrative Code of Belarus. After that period, he was kept in detention; on 24 June 2022 he was sentenced to three years of restricted freedom and released from custody.
The Russian fake news laws are a group of federal laws prohibiting the dissemination of information considered "unreliable" by Russian authorities, establishing the punishment for such dissemination, and allowing the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media to extrajudicially block access to online media publishing such information. The most well known of these laws is the Federal Law of 4 March 2022 No.32-FZ enacted during the Russian invasion of Ukraine; the adoption of this law caused the mass exodus of foreign media from Russia and termination of the activity of independent Russian media.
On 7 April 2022, Pavel Alexandrovich Pernikaŭ, a 30-year-old Belarusian human rights activist and Wikipedia editor, was sentenced to two years imprisonment for "discrediting the Republic of Belarus" by making two edits to Wikipedia about political repression in Belarus, and posting one article to the website of a human rights organization about torture and extra-judicial killings in Belarusian detention centers. Days after his imprisonment, he was recognized as a political prisoner by Belarusian human rights organizations.
Busly liaciać is a Belarusian opposition resistance group founded on 13 November 2020 and fighting against the Alexander Lukashenko government. Included together with the Cyber Partisans in the association "Supraciŭ"
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