On August 24, the most well-known human rights organisation in Belarus, the Viasna Human Rights Center, was added in the Index of organisations, formations and individual entrepreneurs involved in extremist activities. This arbitrary decision was based on the Ministry of Internal Affairs Decision №26EK of August 23, 2023 "On Recognition of a Group of Citizens as an Extremist Formation and Prohibition of its Activities".
Viasna was established in 1996 and deregistered in 2003. The organisation’s chairman and founder is the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the summer of 2021 on charges of funding CSO activities from abroad as "smuggling". Currently, five Viasna members remain behind bars.
According to this state decision a group of citizens, united under the name Viasna together with all its regional branches (more than 30 web-resources in total), is recognised as an extremist formation “for organising activities aimed at preparing attacks on the sovereignty and public security of the Republic of Belarus, discrediting and insulting officials”, BelTA (Belarusian Telegraph Agency) reported.
The comprehensive list of online resources that unite this "extremist formation" includes websites such as spring96.org and freeviasna.org, Telegram channels, multiple Viasna social media pages in different social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others), shared messenger and e-mail accounts for communication with human rights defenders, Viasna’s Patreon crowdfunding page, as well as personal mail and Telegram accounts. The website of the international human rights organisation frontlinedefenders.org containing information about Viasna has also been added to the list.
“Individuals involved in any transfer of information to representatives of Viasna are recognised as participants of the extremist formation and will be prosecuted under Articles 361/1 and 361/4 of the Criminal Code of Belarus that provides for up to seven years of imprisonment,” pro-government media posted.
It should be emphasised that Article 361/1 punishes membership in an extremist formation. Article 361/2 penalises any financing of "extremist formations". A particularly extreme and expansive interpretation is given by Article 361/4, which provides for a prison sentence of 2 to 6 years for recruitment, other involvement of a person in extremist activities, training, as well as other assistance to extremist activities.
Authorities apply all of these articles of the Criminal Code in practice and issue sentences under which dozens of people are imprisoned for making bank transfers to extremist formations or giving interviews to extremist formations. A particular danger is that the crime is retroactive:. criminal penalties can be imposed for assisting an extremist formation even before a specific extremist formation was included in the official Index.
Viasna is the 144th organisation included in the Index, first published in 2021. The Index mainly includes online communities, their social networks and media outlets.
This is not the first case a previously registered CSO was included in the Index. In 2022 the environmental organisation Ekodom, previously liquidated by the authorities in 2021 but continuing its activities, was added to the Index by the decision of the KGB. The Trade Union of Radio-Electronic Industry and the Belarusian Association of Journalists are also on this Index. Any cooperation with these organisations can be grounds for criminal liability.
According to the Law “On Countering Extremism” the decision to include CSOs in the Index is made in an administrative, non-judicial manner by an internal order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or KGB. A formal procedure for complaining about inclusion in the list exists, but de facto it is almost never applied in practice by CSOs due to the difficulties in ensuring representation in court on behalf of an extremist formation.
The government’s decision to label the Viasna as an “extremist formation” is politically motivated persecution linked to the peaceful exercise of individual rights and freedoms, Belarusian CSOs state.