{"id":565454,"date":"2026-08-04T19:51:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=565454"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:27:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T07:27:55","slug":"the-statute-of-limitations-under-article-342-has-expired-so-you-can-return-human-rights-defenders-explain-why-that-is-not-the-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/the-statute-of-limitations-under-article-342-has-expired-so-you-can-return-human-rights-defenders-explain-why-that-is-not-the-case","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Statute of Limitations Under Article 342 Has Expired, So You Can Return.\u201d Human Rights Defenders Explain Why That Is Not the Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe statute of limitations under Article 342 has expired, so you can return to Belarus\u201d \u2014 the human rights initiative Dissidentby explains<\/a> why that is not the case.<\/p>\n

Article 342 of the Criminal Code (organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order, or actively participating in them) is classified as a less serious offense, for which the statute of limitations is five years. The main post-election protests took place between August and November 2020, meaning that the statute of limitations formally expired between August and November 2025.<\/p>\n

Human rights defenders explain that returning to Belarus still carries significant risks.<\/p>\n

1. The statute of limitations is reset by any \u201cnew offense.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

If a person committed a new offense during those five years, the limitation period for Article 342 begins anew from the date of that new incident. Moreover, a \u201cnew offense\u201d could be something as minor as a comment, a donation or a repost, resetting the five-year period.<\/p>\n

2. A \u201cnew offense\u201d can be created artificially.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Law enforcement agencies have begun using a new mechanism to bring people to criminal liability. A person is summoned under the pretext of closing an old Article 342 case. Their phone is not confiscated upon entry, but it is later sent for \u201cexamination,\u201d while the person may be detained for 24 hours during the process. Investigators then allegedly \u201cdiscover\u201d materials related to another criminal offense on the phone. As a result, the statute of limitations for Article 342 begins to run again from the date of the new alleged incident.<\/p>\n

3. The statute of limitations is suspended if a person is wanted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If a person is hiding from law enforcement or the court, the statute of limitations is suspended and resumes only from the date of the person’s detention or voluntary surrender. If a criminal case has been opened against you and you have been placed on a wanted list, your \u201cfive years\u201d may not have run at all. A person may believe that the statute of limitations expired long ago, when in fact the clock stopped on the day they were declared wanted.<\/p>\n

4. Even the termination of a case does not leave a person \u201cin the clear.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

There have been cases in which a person was tried, the court ruled that they were \u201creleased from criminal liability due to the expiration of the statute of limitations,\u201d yet they were still added to the \u201cextremist list,\u201d with all the resulting consequences.<\/p>\n

For those who have already been convicted under Article 342 and are serving their sentence, the expiration of the statute of limitations changes nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not change your safety practices based on this myth. If you are considering returning, first consult lawyers and human rights defenders,\u201d<\/i> the human rights defenders warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe statute of limitations under Article 342 has expired, so you can return to Belarus\u201d \u2014 the human rights initiative Dissidentby explains why that is not the case. Article 342 of the Criminal Code (organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order, or actively participating in them) is classified as a less serious offense, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":565453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6a72e60786738.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"\u201cThe Statute of Limitations Under Article 342 Has Expired, So You Can Return.\u201d Human Rights Defenders Explain Why That Is Not the Case"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-565454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-society"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}