Political prisoners in Belarus

Belarus has held over a thousand political prisoners since the disputed August 2020 presidential election, when state security responded to mass protests with mass arrests. Charges most often invoked include Article 342 (organizing actions that grossly violate public order), Article 361 (calls against state security), and a growing list of 'extremism' designations applied to journalists, Telegram channels, and protest movements.

Political Prisoner Watch republishes case records maintained by Viasna Human Rights Centre — the country's leading documentation organization, whose own staff including Nobel Peace laureate Ales Bialiatski are themselves imprisoned. We translate cases to English, classify them by charge taxonomy, and surface them in the same database alongside Russia, Kazakhstan, and other monitored countries.

Primary sources: Viasna Human Rights Centre