Belarus protests draw unprecedented crackdown

The 2020 Belarus protests were the largest in the country's history and brought an unprecedented crackdown, in which protesters nationwide were tortured and criminally prosecuted as a means of repressing peaceful assembly. A report finds that these cases became political as the government violated the presumption of innocence and meted out disproportionately harsh sentences. The report found no reports of disciplinary action taken against law enforcement officers who exceeded their authority by using physical force. The Belarusian authorities continue to use legal means of repressing protests such as detaining individuals and seizing property to ensure payment of fines; the report's authors have found at least 28,000 such cases.

https://ecnl.org/publications/monitoring-right-free-assembly-belarus-2020

Writer: ECNL

Publication: European Center for Not-for-Profit Law