On the first anniversary of Belarus’ unprecedented crackdown on the Human Rights Center Viasna (“Viasna”), 20 international and Belarusian human rights organisations including Amnesty International are launching a campaign to demand the release of seven detained Viasna members and raise awareness of the plight of hundreds of others who have been prosecuted and imprisoned solely for exercising their right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression
Officials in Lithuania say the number of illegal migrants arriving from Belarus has hit a new high, with around 300 detentions reported in just one day. The majority of the inmates are Iraqis who appear to have crossed the border with relative ease via Belarus. Belarus is allowing migrants to travel as a “provocation” toward the EU, according to Lithuanian and EU officials, in revenge for Minsk’s sanctions
Ingrida Simonyte, the Prime Minister of Lithuania, has said that her government will build a “additional physical barrier” between Lithuania and Belarus to prevent migrants from entering the nation from Belarus
The Belarus Government’s Crackdown On Demonstrators In August 2020 Is The Subject Of The Russian-Estonian Film “Minsk.” The Entire 90-Minute Film Was Shot In One Take, And It Will Be Released On The One-Year Anniversary Of The Atrocities
Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, An Exiled Belarusian Presidential Candidate, Says European Leaders Would Do More For Her Nation
After Hearing That His Family And Neighbours Would Face Prosecution If He Did Not Plead Guilty, A 41-Year-Old Belarusian Man Attempted To Cut His Own Neck At A Court Hearing In Minsk On June 1. Last Year, As Major Protests Erupted In Belarus Over The Disputed Presidential Election Results, Stsyapan Latypau Was Imprisoned As Part Of A Violent Crackdown On Dissent
(28 May), Russian Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told journalists that “to say from the start” that the landing in Minsk of a Ryanair plane flying from Greece to Lithuania on Sunday and the subsequent arrest of blogger Raman Pratasevich was a “forced landing, to condemn it and to impose sanctions without any investigation; this kind of behaviour is absolutely irresponsible”
Raman Pratasevich’s father claims that Minsk received outside assistance in what he believes was a well-planned operation to kidnap his son. On May 23, Belarus detained Pratasevich after forcing a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to land in the Belarusian capital
After being convicted of threatening a police officer in an online chat room, a Belarusian man faces two years of forced labour, while a 19-year-old arrested for displaying an opposition flag in his student dorm window faces seven years in jail on extremism charges. Following a months-long crackdown on the opposition in the aftermath of a widely regarded rigged presidential election, Belarusian authorities are now tightening their grip on even the tiniest signs of dissent
As part of their relentless crackdown on the protest movement in Belarus, the authorities are ruthlessly targeting independent labour unions and trampling on workers’ rights, according to Amnesty International