During May, the continuation of mass political repressions of the regime was noted. According to the human rights center "Viasna", at least 145 people were sentenced in May for political reasons, including 31 women and 114 men. In addition, at least six families (couples or entire groups of relatives) were convicted last month. Right now, human rights defenders know the details of 39 criminal cases.
Minsk (76 people) and Brest Oblast (34 people) remain the leaders in criminal prosecution of dissidents.
In May, the trend of intensive use of the special production procedure by the judicial system in relation to political immigrants gained strength. In particular, the month was marked by the beginning of the most massive trial in absentia against "Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya's analysts" and the adviser to the leader of the democratic forces, Franak Vyachorka.
Part 3 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code was widely used in practice in May solely due to the presence in it of a qualifying feature in the form of actions using mass media or the global computer network Internet — that is, in fact, any public expression of opinion. The sanction of this article, precisely according to the third part, provides only one type of the main type of punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of four to twelve years.
We express our condolences to all illegally repressed opponents of the government and their relatives who are waiting for them at home.
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