Timur and his mother live in one of the cities in Belarus. They asked us to change their names and the name of the city because they’re afraid of persecution. On the evening of August 11, Timur was detained by unidentified men in assault vests equipped with radios. The reason: the army boots and gloves Timur was wearing to supposedly “cover up the destruction of property”. The result: blunt head trauma, broken nose, multiple contusions and abrasions, the tremor that won’t stop after three months, two commissions on juvenile affairs, and nightmares that his younger sister has at night.

Timur…

Vitebsk Oktyabrsky District Court found 27 years old Vladislav Makovetskiy guilty of attacking police officers during a protest on September 6 and convicted him to two years in an ordinary regime penal colony, informs Viasna Human Rights Centre.

Makovetskiy was arrested on September 18, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs press service posted a video of the search. Law-enforcement authorities believe that the defendant “is a member of a youth opposition movement, is very interested in fascist symbols and takes an active part in protests.”

Natalia Makovetskaya, the mother of the defendant, commented to TUT.BY: “He’s an artist, a collector…

Ales Tolstyk was detained near his house on October 14th. He went through the typical way for today’s Belarusians “from the police department to Zhodino prison” and tells how it was: from an electric shocker in Okrestina detention center to being kept in a cell for life prisoners in Zhodino.

“Look out the window — Dad is being kidnapped.”

Ales was detained on October 14 at 5 pm near the entrance to the house where he lives with his family.

“I had anticipation,” he recalls. “I said goodbye to my daughter not as usual, then in the street through the…

On November 16th the Frunzenski District Court judge Andrey Mlechko sentenced Viktoria, a resident of Minsk city to 25 days of imprisonment. She was detained the day before at Peremen Square: at the court session, she said she was pregnant.

The court session was held on Skype. The detainee said she had not taken part in the protest and had not resisted her detention, although it was written in the official record. Moreover, she was pregnant. Unfortunately, she received a positive pregnancy test right before the protest event, she had no chance to register in the clinic.

“Such a precedent…

At the beginning of November, several dozen doctors were detained near the 1st hospital in the center of Minsk. Among them is a leading researcher at the Alexandrova Republican Scientific and Practical Center of Oncology Alexander Minich. During the trial, colleagues spoke of him as a unique specialist. The court’s verdict was 13 days of detention. During these detention days the doctor fell ill with coronavirus and after his release he “dropped out of medicine” for another two weeks. The doctor told TUT.BY …

The investigation into the case of Alyaksandr Kardziukou has already been completed. His case may begin in the coming months.

• Gennady Shutov from Brest died during the protests after the presidential election.
• He was shot in the back of the head near the house № 334 on Maskousky Street in Brest on August 11.
• Gennady Shutov spent several days in the intensive care of the Brest hospital, then he was taken by a helicopter to a military hospital in Minsk.
• Shutov died on August 19.
• The official cause of death was brain swelling from trauma, gunshot wounds from an unregistered…

On December 14, about a hundred elderly people were detained in Minsk. BELSAT spoke with Valeria Mikhailovna — perhaps the oldest person who spent about 6 hours in the police department.

“My name is Valeria Mikhailovna. I live in Minsk. In 4 months I will be 90 years old.

My daughter and I decided to go for a walk. She is 67 years old, her name is Ludmila. She said, “Let’s go to Independence Square [in the city centre].” We went. We’ve come and see no one. It turned out that all the protesters were standing behind the fir tree.

…

In the evening of December 10th, locals from the partnership of owners “Pushkinskoe’’ gathered in their yard on Olshevsky street to decorate the place for Christmas. As they were putting the decorations, two black minibuses with presumably police officers in black arrived and detained 6 men, whom they promised to let go after a talk. The men were not set free. Moreover, on December 11th the detainees were sentenced to between 10 and 25 days of imprisonment.

The locals tell that on December 10th they gathered in the yard between 1A and 1B buildings on Olshevsky street as they usually…