Author: YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia — A Belarusian man has died in prison while serving a sentence for insulting the country’s authoritarian president, a human rights group said Thursday, adding to a growing number of political prisoners who perished amid a relentless crackdown on dissent in the tightly controlled country. Valiantsin Shtermer, 61, died in a prison colony […]

TALLINN, Estonia — Journalist Ksenia Lutskina served only half of her eight-year prison sentence in Belarus after being convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government. She was pardoned after she kept fainting in her cell from a brain tumor diagnosed during pretrial detention. “I was literally brought to the penal colony in a wheelchair, and […]

TALLINN, Estonia — Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko was sworn in Tuesday to a seventh term, and he mocked those who derided him as “Europe’s last dictator” by saying his country has more democracy “than those who cast themselves as its models.” “Half of the world is dreaming about our ‘dictatorship,’ the dictatorship of real […]

The smiling face of President Alexander Lukashenko gazed out from campaign posters across Belarus on Sunday as the country held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give the 70-year-old autocrat yet another term on top of his three decades in power. “Needed!” the posters proclaim beneath a photo of Lukashenko, his hands clasped together. The […]

TALLINN, Estonia — The yellow name tag that Ales Bialiatski wears on his prison garb sets him apart from other inmates in Penal Colony No. 9 in eastern Belarus. It marks Bialiatski as a political prisoner to be singled out for harsh treatment. Because he’s been labeled an “extremist” by authorities, he’s routinely denied medications, […]

TALLINN, Estonia — Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 20 more people that rights activists describe as political prisoners, a statement on the president’s website said Saturday. The announcement came amid persistent oppression in the run-up to presidential elections next month that are likely to extend Lukashenko’s decades-long rule. Belarusian officials did not provide the […]

TALLINN, Estonia — A court in Belarus convicted a well-known opposition activist and sentenced him to six years in prison, the country’s oldest and most prominent human rights group, Viasna, reported Friday. The move is the latest in the unabating crackdown against dissent that the country’s authorities have unleashed in recent years. Dzmitry Kuchuk, whose […]

TALLINN, Estonia — Belarusian authorities have arrested seven journalists who worked for an independent regional news outlet, a media watchdog said Thursday, the latest move in a sweeping crackdown on dissent and freedom of speech by the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarusian Association of Journalists said the seven — journalists who worked for […]

TALLINN, Estonia — A Belarusian journalist has been sentenced to four years in prison for her critical reports chronicling a sweeping crackdown on dissent launched by the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The Minsk City Court convicted Volha Radzivonava on Tuesday on charges of “insulting the president” and “discrediting Belarus” and sentenced her to four […]

TALLINN, Estonia — Belarus’ authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, pardoned 29 political prisoners Monday amid what human rights groups describe as renewed oppression in the country. Belarusian officials did not provide the names of those released but said that the group included 11 women and 18 men. More than half of those pardoned had disabilities and […]