A hundred convicted on political grounds in criminal cases in August
In August the Human Rights Center Viasna observed a continuing trend toward criminal prosecution of citizens for political reasons. Viasna human rights defenders are aware of at least 98 citizens convicted on political grounds in August.
Of those, about four-fifths (80%) are men and one-fifth (20%) are women.
Of all August sentences known to human rights defenders, half (51%) were under the defamation articles, which the human rights community has long insisted on excluding from the Criminal Code. Another one-fourth (27%) was passed under the articles on ‘preparation of group actions grossly violating the public order or active participation in them’ and ‘mass riots’.
Human rights defenders recorded that in August judges continued to impose penalties related to imprisonment and restriction of freedom on most of those involved in ‘protest’ criminal cases. August sentences in numbers:
- 63 people sentenced to a total of 223 years and 10 months of imprisonment.
- 11 people sentenced to a total of 29 years of freedom restriction in an open penitentiary.
- 24 people sentenced to a total of 62 years of freedom restriction under home confinement.
- 11 people received fines totaling 89,600 Belarusian rubles (equivalent to 35,300 US dollars) as an additional punishment to imprisonment (10 convicts) or a freedom restriction (1 convict).
- 1 person has been banned from holding executive positions for five years, as an additional punishment to their imprisonment
In August, the courts handed down custodial sentences in two-thirds (64%) of all cases. One-tenth of all sentences (11%) involved restriction of freedom in open-type facilities. Home confinement was ordered in every fourth case (25%).
Thus, various types of custodial and freedom-restricting sentences were handed down in all of the politically motivated cases in August.
