The initiative of former security officers BELPOL presented a report titled “On the Real Scale of Political Repression in Belarus” at the Third Congress on Political Prisoners #WithoutJustCause, taking place in Vilnius.
The report was prepared with the participation of the Office of the United Transitional Cabinet for Social Policy and the Volnyja initiative, using materials from the human rights organisations Dissidentby and Viasna.
“This report is intended to help properly understand Belarusian reality, because the issue of political repression and political prisoners in Belarus is misunderstood by many; in reality it is much broader than is presented to the public. In reality, hundreds of thousands of people in our country have suffered from political repression.”, BELPOL commented.
The document outlines the actual scale of political repression, identifies categories of repressed individuals that are often not mentioned, and discusses the nominal nature of the so-called “release” and “amnesty” of political prisoners.
According to the report, from May 2020 to March 2026, 9,564 people underwent politically motivated criminal prosecution. This figure includes 911 current political prisoners, 3,660 former political prisoners and 5,023 people who were not recognised as political prisoners.
More than 100,000 people have been included in the “BESporyadki” database, of whom more than 50,000 were subjected to administrative detention and arrest. People listed in the database face restrictions on their rights, including in employment.
