Editor of s13, Siarhei Chabotska, added to Belarusian “extremist” list

On 21 Novem­ber 2025, the Belaru­sian Inte­ri­or Min­istry updat­ed its list of indi­vid­u­als “involved in extrem­ist activ­i­ty,” adding Siarhei Chabot­s­ka, edi­tor of the Hrod­na city por­tal s13.

Siarhei Chabot­s­ka. Pho­to: Face­book

On 31 Octo­ber 2025, the Hrod­na Region­al Court sen­tenced Chabot­s­ka to 3 years and 6 months in prison and a fine of $14,230. Judge Yury Kaza­ke­vich found him guilty of cre­at­ing an extrem­ist for­ma­tion and defama­tion of the pres­i­dent.

Chabot­s­ka did not admit guilt and did not appeal. His place of impris­on­ment is still unknown.

He has been behind bars since 23 Octo­ber 2024, when he was detained, and the s13 web­site and social media stopped updat­ing the same day. Short­ly after­wards, courts labeled the web­site, its Telegram chan­nel, and lat­er its social media pages and logos as “extrem­ist con­tent.”

In late 2024, he received sev­er­al admin­is­tra­tive arrests, after which a crim­i­nal case was opened. On 9 Decem­ber 2024, s13.ru was list­ed as an extrem­ist for­ma­tion, with Chabot­s­ka and Raman Alesh­ka named as the group’s mem­bers. He was then trans­ferred to pre-tri­al deten­tion.

On 28 Decem­ber 2024, Belaru­sian human rights orga­ni­za­tions rec­og­nized him as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.

In 2025, more project accounts — the Tik­Tok and YouTube chan­nels of s13 — were also declared extrem­ist.

The s13 por­tal oper­at­ed for 19 years, from 2005 until its shut­down in 2024, evolv­ing from a blog into a pop­u­lar local news aggre­ga­tor.

Brief­ing, Novem­ber 27! Banned peo­ple: How writ­ers and jour­nal­ists work in Belarus, where inde­pen­dent work is brand­ed «extrem­ism»