Statement on recognition of Aleh Khamenka as a political prisoner

The right bar­onies of Belarus made a state­ment on July 9.

Aleh Khamen­ka. Archive pho­to: Look­By­Media

Joint state­ment by the Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty

In June 2025, Aleh Khamen­ka, a musi­cian, teacher, and radio host, was detained in Min­sk. As it is now known, a crim­i­nal case has been ini­ti­at­ed against him for coop­er­a­tion with an inde­pen­dent Belaru­sian media out­let, which is on the list of so-called “extrem­ist groups” (the spe­cif­ic arti­cle of the Crim­i­nal Code is cur­rent­ly unknown).

We, the under­signed orga­ni­za­tions, con­sid­er the deten­tion and crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of Aleh Khamen­ka as a con­tin­u­a­tion of the tar­get­ed pol­i­cy of the author­i­ties to lim­it the dis­sem­i­na­tion of uncen­sored infor­ma­tion in the coun­try and a con­tin­u­a­tion of the attack on free­dom of speech. 

The human rights com­mu­ni­ty of Belarus has repeat­ed­ly not­ed that anti-extrem­ist leg­is­la­tion is used by the coun­try’s author­i­ties to sup­press pub­lic and polit­i­cal activ­i­ty and dis­sent. Out-of-court, the Inte­ri­or Min­istry and the KGB arbi­trar­i­ly rec­og­nize as extrem­ist cit­i­zens’ groups brought togeth­er by pub­lic or polit­i­cal inter­ests that crit­i­cize the actions of the author­i­ties and demand reforms in the state and its poli­cies. 38 media resources and orga­ni­za­tions were rec­og­nized as extrem­ist groups as well. This, in turn, paves the way for the arbi­trary crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion and impris­on­ment of their employ­ees, par­tic­i­pants, and respon­dents as a dis­pro­por­tion­ate mea­sure restrict­ing the right to asso­ci­a­tion and free­dom of expres­sion. 

Giv­en the cir­cum­stances, we believe that the crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of Aleh Khamen­ka is, in fact, polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and aimed at stop­ping or chang­ing the nature of his legit­i­mate pub­lic activ­i­ties relat­ed to the non-vio­lent exer­cise of free­dom of expres­sion and dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion.

Based on this and guid­ed by para. 2.1 and 3.1 of the Guide­lines on the Def­i­n­i­tion of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers adopt­ed at the III Belaru­sian Human Rights Forum, we, the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the human rights orga­ni­za­tions, rec­og­nize Aleh Khamen­ka as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er and demand:

• to imme­di­ate­ly release Aleh Khamen­ka and stop crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion against him;

• to refrain from using crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion as an instru­ment of pres­sure on free­dom of expres­sion, or oth­er rights and free­doms;

• to imme­di­ate­ly stop the repres­sion and release all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers.

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists;

Human Rights Cen­ter Vias­na;

Belaru­sian PEN;

Legal Ini­tia­tive;

Lawtrend;

Respect-Pro­tect-Ful­fill;

Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee;

Barys Zvozskau Belaru­sian Human Rights House