Belarusian authorities have sentenced more oppositionists and rights activists as a crackdown against dissent continues in the country led by the authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
A court in the western city of Hrodna on November 18 sentenced political prisoner Alesya Bunevich to 3 1/2 years in prison for "illegal border crossing." Judge Dzmitry Hryshyn held the trial behind closed doors. Human rights activists say Bunevich pleaded not guilty.
Bunevich, the director of a publishing house in Lithuania that issues books in Belarusian, was arrested in early April after she arrived in Belarus to mark the first anniversary of her mother's death.
Rights groups in Belarus say Bunevich's arrest was politically motivated and they have recognized her as a political prisoner.
Also on November 18, a court in Minsk sentenced another political prisoner, Alyaksandr Kukharenka, to two years of open prison on a charge of organizing and preparing activities to disrupt the social order.
Open prison is a system known across the former Soviet Union as "khimiya" (chemistry), a name that goes back to the late-1940s when convicts were sent to work at dangerous facilities such as chemical factories and uranium mines while living in special nearby dormitories instead of being incarcerated in penitentiaries.
These days a "khimiya" sentence is seen as less harsh because a convict will stay in a dormitory not far from their permanent address and work either at their workplace as usual or at a state entity defined by the penitentiary service.
The charge against Kukharenka stemmed from his online repost of an article in August criticizing prosecutors for their reluctance to investigate the apparent murder of Raman Bandarenka, one of thousands of protesters who challenged the official results of the August 2020 presidential poll that handed a sixth term to Lukashenka.
In the western city of Slonim, local activist Viktar Marchyk was sentenced to seven days in jail on November 18 on a charge of distributing of extremist materials.
Marchyk's charges also stem from his reposting of materials on social networks in 2020-2021 that the authorities deemed to be extremist.
Marchyk is a member of the Belarusian National Congress group and an activist for the European Belarus civic movement.
