Over the past two years, 94 people have been convicted of anti-war positions in Belarus

At least 94 people in Belarus were convicted under criminal charges for protesting against the war in Ukraine over the past two years. This is reported by the Vesna human rights movement, which has analyzed judicial statistics since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022. Activists received terms from one year to 23 years of imprisonment.

13 people were convicted of sabotage on the railway. No fewer than 37 people were found guilty of filming moving military equipment and sending photos and videos to the mass media. At least 15 were punished for intending to fight on the side of Ukraine, 13 for donating to Belarusian anti-war volunteer organizations.

In total, according to Vesna’s calculations, at least 1,671 people were detained for anti-war positions in these two years. More than 1,500 of them attended protest rallies shortly after the start of the war, in February and March 2022. Participants of anti-war actions were persecuted for wearing yellow and blue flowers on their clothes and Ukrainian symbols, for the inscription “No war” on their clothes, for placing flowers near the Ukrainian embassy in Minsk, the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty reports. Detainees reported beatings and torture by the police and in pretrial detention centers, as well as threats for participating in protests.