The Human Rights Center ‘Viasna’ has published statistics on politically motivated administrative harassment in 2021.
Last month there were recorded 1,139 detentions on political grounds, including 841 in Minsk. In the regions, the Brest region had the biggest number of detained citizens with at least 76 cases.
On the eve of Freedom Day mass preventive detentions of activists were held in cities of Belarus. On March 25, detentions also took place during the day in various cities. The HRC “Viasna” has information about the detention of 175 people that day in Minsk, and more than 75 people in the regions.
About 250 more people were detained on March 27: a protest rally was announced in Minsk near Bangalore Square at 14.00.
There is also information about 36 detentions of journalists.
According to HRC “Viasna”, in March the courts heard more than 490 administrative cases against community activists and protesters. As a result, judges sentenced 395 people to administrative arrests of 3 to 30 days and gave 82 fines from 2 to 200 basic units.
Most often courts sentenced citizens to 15-day arrests. It happened in 270 cases. At least 32 people were sent to jail for 30 days, as well as applied new norms of the Administrative Code. The total number of days of arrest for detainees was 6,472.
