From Viasna Human Rights Center
Human rights situation in Belarus in 2025
Read the Viasna Human Rights Center’s report on human rights in Belarus in 2025: https://spring96.org/en/news/119433
189 forcibly deported: the situation of political prisoners in 2025 in numbers
Thinking about the year 2025, Belarusians will remember warm hugs with political prisoners after their release and a long journey home, meetings with those who had not been heard from for several years, and the first words spoken in freedom. Mass pardons have returned the freedom to political prisoners, but some have had their homes taken away. After their release, 189 people were forcibly removed from the country. They were deprived of the opportunity to stay at home and choose their own future.
Behind the joy of meetings, there is separation from relatives, forced emigration, loss of documents, health, and social ties. At the same time, more than 1,135 political prisoners remain behind bars, including people with disabilities, media workers, doctors, lawyers, and priests. The situation with political prisoners in Belarus is still critical: people are dying behind bars, they are held in isolation without contact with the world and proper medical care.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/119344
“Even abroad, you remain within the reach of the state.” How Belarusians were persecuted outside the country in 2025?
In 2025, the state engaged in transnational repression with renewed vigor, continuing to intimidate and persecute not only those who are in the country but also those who left it. The International Strategic Action Network for Security ISAN noted that Belarus is in the top 10 countries practicing transnational repression.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/119364
“It hits your brain with terrible force, making it difficult to breathe.” Stories of torture that became known in 2025
Torture, cruel and humiliating treatment in detention centers and prisons have become a systemic part of political persecution in Belarus since August 2020. In five years, not a single criminal case has been initiated against the officers involved in torture. At the same time, the evidence about them continues to accumulate. On the contrary, new, more terrifying stories appear every year. In 2025, former political prisoners released and deported from Belarus talk about being tortured with sounds and sirens, cold in punitive isolation cells (SHIZO), beatings in GUBOPiK, “cages of shame”, and inhumane conditions behind bars. These crimes have occurred in a system closed from society, where violence has become an instrument of intimidation and pressure. Viasna human rights defenders continue to document all cases of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. We are convinced that even if there is no punishment for this in Belarus today, responsibility is inevitable. Viasna recalls the most high-profile and documented cases of torture, which became known in 2025.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/119366
At least 1,254 people convicted in 2025: the results of criminal prosecution
According to information from Viasna, at least 1,254 people were convicted in political criminal cases in Belarus in 2025. Among them were 899 men (72%) and 355 women (28%). Out of the total number of those convicted, 45 people were of retirement age, including 27 women and 18 men. This year, the practice of trials in absentia continues in Belarus. In 2025, at least 30 people were convicted under special proceedings (in absentia). The most common type of punishment in politically motivated criminal cases remains restriction of liberty without placement in an open correctional facility (“domashnyaya khimiya”). At least 555 people were sentenced to domashnyaya khimiya, at least 42 people to khimiya, and at least 306 people to imprisonment. The most frequently used charge in politically motivated trials is participation in protest actions. At least 643 people were convicted under Article 342 of the Criminal Code in 2025.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/119372
“They brought my wife and said she would be tortured.” A family from Ukraine shared a horrifying story of persecution in Belarus
In the spring of 2025, Ukrainian citizens Volha and Mikalai (names changed for the safety of their child in the Russian-occupied territory of Ukraine) came to Belarus from a European country where they had lived since 2023. The city where they lived in Ukraine is now occupied by Russia. They planned to move to a village in Belarus, find a simple job, and be able to meet their son, who lives in the Russian-occupied territory and can only travel with a Russian passport. But Volha and Mikalai were detained shortly after they moved. They were accused of espionage, terrorism, and other serious political crimes. For six months, they were kept in inhumane conditions without care packages, a change of clothes, and hygiene products. Mikalai was tortured by suffocation, forced to plead guilty, beaten, bullied, and blackmailed with sexual violence against his wife to such a state that he stopped talking and developed psychological problems. After experiencing torture and psychological pressure in Belarus, the man stutters heavily and has difficulty speaking. The couple is currently undergoing rehabilitation with the help of Ukrainian specialists. Viasna spoke with Volha and Mikalai about what they had to endure behind bars in Belarus before they were transferred to Ukraine.
For additional reading: https://spring96.org/en/news/119389