Amnesty International: Bloggers and activists arrested in purge ahead of the presidential election must be released

“The Belaru­sian author­i­ties are car­ry­ing out a full-scale purge of dis­sent­ing voic­es, using repres­sive laws to sti­fle crit­i­cism ahead of the elec­tions, where Pres­i­dent Alyak­san­dr Lukashen­ka is run­ning for the sixth con­sec­u­tive term. Oppo­si­tion can­di­dates, sup­port­ers, and inde­pen­dent media have faced arbi­trary arrest, hefty fines, and incar­cer­a­tion. Now those active on social media are being tar­get­ed.

We are appalled by these lat­est arrests. At least two more pop­u­lar blog­gers, Uladz­imir Nyaron­s­ki and Uladz­imir Tsy­hanovich, are already under arrest and fac­ing crim­i­nal charges. Nobody should be pun­ished for using the inter­net to express opin­ions about the gov­ern­ment and its poli­cies. The author­i­ties need remind­ing that free speech is a right, not a crime.

Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al is call­ing for all the blog­gers to be imme­di­ate­ly and uncon­di­tion­al­ly released and for the ongo­ing crack­down on free­dom of expres­sion across Belarus to end.”

Back­ground

Over the last 24 hours, the Belaru­sian author­i­ties have arrest­ed under spu­ri­ous charges Ihar Losik, the admin­is­tra­tor of pop­u­lar Telegram chan­nel Belarus of Brain, Syarhei Pya­trukhin, admin­is­tra­tor of Telegram chan­nels People’s Reporter and YouTube Deputies, and Syarhei Sparish, a mem­ber of the con­stituent com­mit­tee of the new oppo­si­tion par­ty, People’s Hra­ma­da. Anoth­er blog­ger, Uladz­imir Tsy­hanovich, who is serv­ing 15 days of admin­is­tra­tive arrest for tak­ing part in a peace­ful demon­stra­tion, has also been charged with the crime of “orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion for a grave breach of pub­lic order” (Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code of Belarus). Blog­ger Uladz­imir Nyaron­s­ki is also in deten­tion and fac­ing the same charge, along with “pub­licly insult­ing a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the author­i­ties” (Arti­cle 369 of the Crim­i­nal Code).