Belarus. Authorities announce more actions against opposition activists
Belarusian authorities on Tuesday announced a police raid and seizure of property belonging to 104 opposition activists who left the country, the latest move in a widening crackdown on dissent that has swept the former Soviet republic since 2020.
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Mundo Bielorrússia
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko unleashed a crackdown in August 2020 after mass protests erupted against his reelection in a vote the opposition and the West denounced as rigged.
The Belarusian opposition says some 35,000 people were detained during the demonstrations, and it also denounced beatings during arrests, the silencing of dozens of organizations and the jailing of journalists.
An estimated 500,000 people have left the country of 9.5 million, and authorities have stepped up punitive measures targeting Belarusians abroad this year.
Belarus’ Investigative Committee said Thursday the latest searches and seizures targeted activists who criticized Belarusian authorities from abroad and rallied on the anniversary of Belarus’ independence.
Authorities have opened a criminal case against the activists for “forming an extremist group” and “discrediting Belarus,” charges that carry a prison sentence of up to seven years.
Officials said the raids targeted participants in protests that took place in Poland, Lithuania, Belgium, Georgia, the Czech Republic, the United States and other countries on March 25 to mark the 1918 declaration of independence, an anniversary the opposition commemorates annually.
In a statement, Investigative Committee spokesman Sergei Kabakovich called the activists “fugitive puppets” and accused them of “appealing for political and economic pressure on our country.”
In turn, opposition leader in exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the police actions amounted to “revenge by the authorities on Belarusians who continue to fight against the dictatorship.”
Viasna, the country’s top human rights group, puts the number of political prisoners in Belarus at 1,400, including the group’s founder, Ales Bialiatski, who was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
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