From Viasna Human Rights Center
“Do not even have the lyrics with you or at home.” Listening to “extremist” music in Belarus
There are already 300 “extremist groups” in Belarus, including two Belarusian bands: Tor Band and Dzieciuki. The list of “extremist materials” also includes several dozen songs, music videos, and social media pages of music bands. The regime labels Belarusian music as “extremist” to destroy cultural resistance and intimidate listeners. Viasna reports what kind of music is considered “extremist” in Belarus, and Viasna lawyer Viktoryia Rudziankova explains why the regime is more afraid of guitars than batons.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/118326
The quiet terror: how the regime in Belarus changed demonstrative repression into invisible one
After purging the media space, dissolving dozens of civil society organizations, and persecuting thousands of people for political reasons, the Belarusian regime moved on to a new phase of social control, the “quiet” repression. As human rights activist Pavel Sapelka notes, covering up the facts of persecution has become part of government policy: people are persecuted quietly, without high-profile verdicts and demonstrative cases. Viasna lawyer analyzes a new phase of the regime’s terror, which works through silence, intimidation, and fear.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/118337
Belarusian political prisoners in high-security prisons: pressure intensifies
Politically motivated imprisonment with disproportionately high and excessive sentences are not the only method of the authorities’ fight against Belarusians. If political prisoners end up in correctional facilities, the pressure on them continues: they are deprived of calls, visits, and care packages; they are placed in a punishment cell or Secure Housing Unit (SHU). Political prisoners are accused of numerous “violations”, for which they are transferred to a high-security prisons or have new criminal cases initiated against them under Article 411 of the Criminal Code (persistent defiance of prison administration orders). According to human rights activists, as of July 25, 2025, at least 110 political prisoners were transferred to high-security prison and new criminal cases were initiated against another 68 people under Article 411 of the Criminal Code. Viasna reports how the administration of the correctional facilities punishes political prisoners and declares them “persistent violators of the order.”
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/113225
Forced labor in Belarusian prisons: how the Lukashenka regime supports Russia’s war against Ukraine with the help of prisoners
After the mass release of political prisoners from Belarusian prisons, new circumstances of the terrible conditions of their detention and forced labor became known. “GULAG of the XXI century”, “concentration camps”, “hell on earth”, “penal servitude”. These are just a small list of all those metaphorical comparisons that are used to describe places of detention where thousands of political opponents of the current government are serving their sentences. Forced labor performed in correctional institutions and the involvement of the Belarusian political leadership in Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine attract the special attention of researchers. According to information received from former prisoners, the penal colonies produce a wide range of military items: from special clothing to weapons. In this context, the exploitation of prisoners by the state is regarded as a violation of the Republic of Belarus’ international obligations in the prohibition of forced labor and a form of complicity of the authoritarian regime in Russia’s war of aggression. Viasna human rights activist Aleh Matskevich analyzed open sources of information and testimonies from former political prisoners, and spoke about the connection between the forced labor of prisoners in Belarusian prisons and providing for the military needs of the Russian Federation in the war against sovereign Ukraine.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/118382
Regime charges 207 more exiled Belarusians with participating in Freedom Day demonstrations abroad
The Investigative Committee claims it has identified another 207 participants in the celebration of Freedom Day abroad.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/118424
Journalist Daniil Palianski sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony for “treason against the state”
On July 25, the Brest Regional Court, behind closed doors, sentenced 53-year-old freelance journalist Daniil Palianski, reports the Belarusian Association of Journalists. He was found guilty under Article 356 of the Criminal Code (treason to the state) and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of 21,000 rubles (almost 5,500 euros). The essence of the charges is unknown.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/118446
Five years of repression in Belarus: more than 100,000 recorded cases of persecution
Five years have passed since the 2020 protests. The brutality and inhumanity of the security forces in July and August 2020 shocked the entire international community, but since then, the human rights situation in Belarus has deteriorated significantly. The regime continues to take away people’s freedom, health, families, homes, and even their lives. Torture, beatings, inhumane conditions of detention, pressure on relatives, and the forced expulsion of political prisoners from the country are a difficult reality that Belarusians are forced to live in every day. Over the past five years, Viasna human rights defenders have documented more than 100,000* cases of repression, the number of which is almost equal to the number of residents of Lida. Today, 1,190 political prisoners are behind bars, and several dozen more are held in temporary detention facilities across the country under political administrative charges.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/118454