In November, 89 people criminally convicted in political cases
In November, the Human Rights Center Viasna observed a continuing trend toward criminal prosecution and conviction of citizens for political reasons. Activists have information about at least 89 citizens convicted in November, of which about one-fourth are women and three-fourths are men (23 and 66 accordingly).
Human rights defenders recorded that in November judges continued to impose penalties related to imprisonment and restriction of freedom on most of those involved in ‘political’ criminal cases.
November sentences in numbers:
- 62 people were sentenced to a total of 213 years and 3 months of imprisonment
- 1 person received 6 months of suspended imprisonment
- 3 people were sentenced to a total of 6 years of freedom restriction in an open-type penal facility
- 23 people were sentenced to a total of 56 years under home confinement
- 9 people received fines totaling 38,400 Belarusian rubles (approx. US$15,200) as an additional punishment to imprisonment (8 convicts) or home confinement (1 convict)
- 1 person was deprived of the right to engage in activities related to the driving of vehicles for 5 years as an additional punishment along with imprisonment
In November, the courts handed down custodial sentences in 70% of all cases. Another 3% of the sentences involved restriction of freedom in open-type facilities while home confinement was ordered in every fourth case (26%). A suspended jail term was ordered in at least 1 case, which is 1%.
Thus, various types of custodial and freedom-restricting sentences were handed down in all but one politically motivated case in November.
