Chronicle of human rights violations in the sphere of culture (15-30 April 2023)

Poet Mikita Najdzionaŭ is kept in the pretrial detention centre No 8 (SIZO No 8) in Žodzina.

Verdicts were handed down in politically motivated criminal cases to regional ethnographer Uladzimir Hundar, actor Andrej Tryzubaŭ, German language teacher Andrej Pukanaŭ, Christian musicians Vera and Andrej Mamojka, publicist and activist Alena Hnaŭk, Wikipedia author, editor and a veteran of Belarusian-language community on LiveJournal Ivan (Jan) Marozaŭ. The sentence for human rights defender, writer, and Nobel Prize laureate Alieś Bialiacki (Aleś Bialiatski) has taken effect. He will soon be transferred to a penal colony. The trial of Paval Bielavus, founder of Symbal.by store and cultural manager, continues behind closed doors at Minsk City Court. The same court continues hearing the criminal case of poet and former teacher at SmartSchool private school Dzmitry Jurtajeŭ.

Ex-Belgazprombank. CEO, philanthropist and former presidential contender Viktar Babaryka was admitted with injuries to the surgery department of the central hospital in Navapolack.

The Ministry of Information filed a lawsuit with the Minsk Economic Court seeking to terminate the validity of the certificate of state registration as a publisher of the Zmicier Kolas publishing house.

Hrodna Regional Court ruled to liquidate the Social Union of Lithuanians “Gimtinė” (Homeland) in Pieliasa.

І. Politically motivated criminal cases against cultural workers, authors and performers

5. On 17 April, Hrodna’s Leninski District Court handed down a verdict in a third criminal case of local ethnographer Uladzimir Hundar, accused of insulting prosecutor Liudmila Hierasimienka who represented the prosecution in the Mikalaj Aūtuchovič case. Hundar received 2.5 years in a penal colony under Article 369 in the Criminal Code of Belarus. All in all, he was sentenced to 20 years in a medium-security penal colony.
6. On 17 April, Minsk’s Kastryčnicki District Court sentenced actor Andrej Tryzubaŭ from the Huziki drama and music band to three years of home confinement. He was found guilty under Article 342(1) in the Criminal Code (organisation and preparation of actions, which grossly violate public order, or participation in them). The actor was detained on the morning of 4 January 2023 in Minsk and kept behind bars until the trial.
7. On 18 April, Homiel District Court sentenced Andrej Pukanaŭ, German language teacher, Bachelor of Theology, ethnographer, and member of Belarusian Geographic Society, to two years in a minimum-security prison. He was detained on 18 January 2023 and kept in the pretrial detention centre No 3 (SIZA No 3) in Homiel. Andrej Pukanaŭ was found guilty of libelling the president under Article 367 in the Criminal Code of Belarus.
8. On 20 April, Minsk’s Centralny District Court sentenced Christian musicians Vera and Andrej Mamojka to two and a half years of home confinement under Article 342(1) in the Criminal Code (organisation and preparation of actions, which grossly violate public order, or participation in them). Vera and Andrej were detained on 1 February in Minsk for taking part in the 2020 peaceful protests and kept behind bars until trial.
9. The trial of the founder of the Symbal.by store and cultural manager Paval Belavus continues behind closed doors in the Minsk City Court. His trial began on 20 February. Paval Belavus was charged under four articles of the Criminal Code: Art. 342 (organisation and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order or active participation in them), Art. 361 (calls for actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus), Art. 361.1 (creation of an extremist formation or participation in it), Art. 356 (treason). The prosecution claims that Paval Belavus “under the guise of cultural and historical development, spread on various social media platforms and websites the ideas of Belarusian nationalism, the goal of which was to change the state power in Belarus, stimulated the hostility of his compatriots towards the Motherland” and “with his criminal actions in ten years endangered the external and internal security of the state.” Paval Belavus has been behind bars since 23 December 2021.
10. On 21 April, Minsk City Court heard appeals against the 3 March verdict of Minsk’s Leninski District Court in the case of the Viasna human rights centre. The court left the complaints of human rights defenders unsatisfied. On 3 March 2023, human rights defender, writer, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Alieś Bialiacki was sentenced to 10 years in prison for helping the repressed. His colleagues Valiancin Stefanovič and Uladzimir Labkovič received nine and seven years in jail. On 21 April, the sentence against the human rights defenders took effect. They will be transferred to prison soon.
11. On 26 April 2023, reports appeared that poet Mikita Najdzionaŭ was in pretrial prison No. 8 in Žodzina. According to preliminary information, he is charged under Art. 342 (1) of the Criminal Code (organisation and preparation of and active participation in actions that grossly violate public order) for participating in peaceful protests against the falsified election results in 2020. Mikita Najdzionaŭ is a poet, musician, translator, author of the collection of poetry “Farewells” (2016), former frontman of the Hurma band, and songwriter for several artists. In 2007, he won the youth competition “The Days of Belarusian and Swedish Poetry” in Pinsk. In 2015, he won the “Golden Apostrophe” award for his poems in the Dziejasloŭ magazine. In 2016, he was a “Debut” Literary Award nominee for his poetry collection “Farewells”. Mikita is known as a translator of 16 songs of The Beatles into Belarusian.
12. On 26 April, the Minsk City Court continued hearing the criminal case of poet and former teacher of private school “Smart School” Dzmity Jurtajeŭ, charged under Art. 368 (1) (insulting the president) and Art. 130 (1) of the Criminal Code (inciting social hostility or discord). According to the indictment, Dzmity Jurtajeŭ “deliberately posted 22 publications against representatives of the government and security agencies on his Facebook page on the grounds of political and ideological enmity, intending to destabilise the situation in Belarus, expressing hatred for the employees of the security forces.”
13. On 28 April, Homiel’s Čyhunačny District Court Gomel handed down a verdict in the third criminal case against publicist and social activist Alena Hnaŭk – one year in a minimum-security prison. The combined sentence is now two years and 11 months in jail. Alena Hnaŭk was charged under Art. 411 (1) of the Criminal Code (malicious disobedience to the requirements of a prison administration).
14. On 28 April, Minsk’s Pieršamajski District Court issued a verdict in the criminal case of Ivan (Jan) Marozaŭ, a Wikipedia author and editor, one of the persons behind the Belarusian-language activity in LiveJournal, known by the nickname hondurazian. Marozaŭ was sentenced to 1.5 years in a minimum-security penal colony under Art. 342 (1) of the Criminal Code (organisation or active participation in group actions that grossly violate public order) for participating in peaceful protests against the falsified election results in 2020. On 9 January 2023, reports appeared that Ivan (Jan) Marozaŭ was detained. At the time, he was charged for participating in the protests in 2020 and for his joke that he would attack special forces with HIMARS systems, which “unfortunately, he does not have in his garage.”

II. Politically motivated administrative detentions and arrests of cultural workers, authors and performers

1. On 18 April, it became known that cartoonist Anatol Ščohalieŭ was detained in Rečyca, Homiel region. The local police wrote on its Telegram channel that Anatol Ščohalieŭ was sentenced to administrative arrest for subscribing to “destructive Telegram channels” and “spreading destructive information.” The police did not elaborate on the number of days behind bars.
2. On 21 April, the former drummer of the Dzieciuki band, Aliaksandr Syraježka, was detained in Hrodna. He was kept behind bars for three days and then released. The trial will take place on 24 May.
3. On 21 April, it became known that Belarusian language teacher Iryna Lieśničenka was convicted in Ušačy, Viciebsk region, under an administrative offence article. The teacher plans to appeal the ruling on 3 May.
4. On 22 April, Ihar Bortnik, PhD was arrested for the third time for 13 days under Art. 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (dissemination of extremist products). On 29 March, Ihar was detained at his workplace and escorted in handcuffs during the mass arrests of the museum workers. Police ransacked his apartment during the search. First, he was sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest under Art. 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. On 8 April, he was arrested for another 13 days under Art. 24.23 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violating the procedure of organising or holding mass events).
5. On 23 April, pro-government Telegram channels reported about the arrest of musician Ruslan Chliebarodaŭ, the author of the song “Stop Cockroach”.
6. On 28 April, an organiser of cultural events, Valiancina Bolbat, was once again detained in Vierchniadzvinsk, Viciebsk region.

III. Trials and arrests for using Belarusian and Ukrainian national symbols

1. On 11 April, the district court of Hlybokaje in the Viciebsk region heard the administrative case of Valeryja Vasiukovič, opened under Art. 24.23 (1) of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violating the procedure of organising or holding mass events). Valeryja had published posts containing the image of the white-red-white flag with the Pahonia (Chase) emblem on the VKontakte social media platform. Valeryja Vasiukovič was detained on 8 April at her workplace and kept behind bars until the trial. The court sentenced her to 3 days of administrative arrest, which she has already served.
2. On 18 April, Aliaksandar Salejka was arrested in Slonim. On 19 April, Slonim District Court sentenced him under two articles of the Administrative Code to 15 days of arrest and a fine of 20 base amounts (740 rubles – $300) for subscribing to the BYSOL page and for a photo of a car with a white-red-white sticker.
3. On 29 April, Mijory District Court fined Volha Rynkievič 20 base amounts (740 rubles or $300) for posting the photos of white-red-white flags on her Odnoklassniki account under Art. 24.23(1) of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the procedure for organising or holding mass events).

IV. Conditions in places of detention

On 26 April, it became known that Viktar Babaryka, the ex-CEO of Belgazprombank, a philanthropist and a former presidential contender, was taken to the surgery department of the Navapolack hospital with injuries. Viktar Babaryka is serving his sentence in a local penal colony after conviction in a politically motivated case. He was detained on 18 June 2020 during the presidential election campaign. On 6 July 2021, Minsk’s Maskoŭski District Court sentenced Viktar Babaryka to 14 years in a high-security prison. In 2018, Belgazprombank financed the publication of 15,000 copies of a five-volume collection of works by Sviatlana Aleksievič, translated into Belarusian, for donation to libraries across Belarus.

V. Repressions in the book and publishing sector

1. On 21 April, the Ministry of Information filed a lawsuit in the Economic Court of Minsk seeking to terminate the validity of the certificate of state registration as a publisher of the Zmicier Kolas publishing house. The session at the Supreme Court is scheduled for 2 May. The lawsuit is in connection with the published collection of historical documents “Freed and Enslaved”. The Polish-Belarusian border 1939–1941 in the papers of Belarusian archives”. On 6 January, Minsk’s Centralny District Court designated the book as “extremist materials”.
2. The Ministry of Information has restricted access to audiobooks.by – a website with audiobooks in the Belarusian language. The platform stores links to more than 500 books.

VI. De-Belarusisation

There is not a single play in the Belarusian language in the repertoire of the Hrodna Puppet Theatre, judging by the poster for April – May 2023.

VII. State vandalism of memorial sites that are significant for Belarusian culture

On 21 April, it became known that in Minsk’s suburb, at the site of Stalin’s mass executions in Kurapaty, a monument to the politician, historian, and academician Vaclaŭ Lastoŭski, executed in 1938, was desecrated. Artist Alieś Cirkunoŭ and sculptor Juraś Kamandzirčyk created the memorial cross in 2016.

 VIII. Liquidation of organisations and foundations that support culture

On 28 April, Hrodna Regional Court ruled to liquidate the Social Union of Lithuanians “Gimtinė” (Homeland), which has operated in a Lithuanian-language secondary school in the village of Pieliasa, Voranava district since 1993.