Олег Супрунюк. Фото: 1reg.by
The Interior Ministry has added 18 more people to the “List of Citizens of the Republic of Belarus, Foreign Citizens, and Stateless Persons Involved in Extremist Activities.”
Among them is political prisoner and Brest-based journalist Oleg Suprunyuk, who was sentenced to three years in prison for alleged participation in an “extremist formation” under Part 3, Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code. He was accused of being a member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), which the authorities designated as an “extremist formation,” and of writing articles for the organization.
Also added to the list were political prisoner Ivan Zamyatin; Yevhen Mazets and Yury Nesterov, convicted in the “Hajun case” for donations; and two individuals convicted under the widely used Article 342 of the Criminal Code but released from liability due to the expiration of prosecution time limits.
The list now contains 5,916 names.
Belarusian authorities routinely use extremism charges to suppress political opponents and dissent more broadly.