Belarus: the EU imposed sanctions on 28 people for participating in internal repression

Today, August 5, the Council of the EU introduced restrictive measures against another 28 people for their role in internal repression and human rights violations in Belarus, the press service of the European institution reports. radiosvoboda.org.

Oleksandr Lukashenko

Sanctions, in particular, were imposed against two deputy heads of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (GUBEZiK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. GUBEZIK is one of the main bodies responsible for political persecution in Belarus, including arbitrary and illegal arrests and ill-treatment, including torture, of activists and members of civil society, the EU Council explained.

Prosecutors and judges who handed down politically motivated sentences were also added to the sanctions list, including against citizens who protested the falsification of the 2020 presidential election or simply expressed their opinion against the Lukashenko regime.

In addition, restrictive measures are also applied to the heads of various correctional institutions (prisons and pre-trial detention centers).

EU sanctions have also been imposed on representatives of the Belarusian mass media — the general director of the largest state information agency "Belarusian Telegraph Agency" (BelTA) Iryna Akulovich, the presenter of the TV program "Senate" on the STV channel Mykyta Rachilovskyi, and the former head of Lukashenka's press service Dmytro Zhuk.

"These propagandists of the regime willingly provided the Belarusian public with false information about the repressions carried out by the state authorities, spread disinformation produced by both the Belarusian and Russian authorities, and contributed to the incitement of hatred against the democratic opposition and civil society," the EU Council said in a statement.

In general, EU restrictive measures against Belarus are currently applied to 261 individuals and 37 legal entities.

Earlier, the representative of the Belarusian human rights center "Vyasna", former political prisoner Leonid Sudalenko, said that since the beginning of mass protests in Belarus during the 2020 presidential elections, more than 50 thousand citizens of the country have been detained. According to the estimates of human rights defenders, at least 5 people have been convicted of politically motivated criminal cases.

Thousands of protests in Belarus began after the announcement of the victory of Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential elections in August 2020. Actions against falsification of voting results lasted more than half a year.

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