Larysa Shchyrakova

Larysa Shchyrako­va, a for­mer inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ist from Homel, was detained on Decem­ber 6. Lat­er it became known that a crim­i­nal case was brought against her for «dis­cred­it­ing the Repub­lic of Belarus.»

Shchyrakova’s minor son was tak­en to a children’s shel­ter on the day of his mother’s arrest. His father, who lives in Rus­sia, was able to col­lect his son from the shel­ter.

Back in 2021, Shchyrako­va pub­licly announced that she quit jour­nal­ism. She worked as a pho­tog­ra­ph­er, doc­u­ment­ing Belaru­sian cul­tur­al tra­di­tions and offer­ing folk-style pho­to­shoots to the pub­lic.

Human rights activists rec­og­nized her as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.

Charges: Arti­cle 369–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (dis­cred­it­ing the Repub­lic of Belarus).

Birth­day: 13 April 1973