Lukashenko Steps up Repression Ahead of Belarus Election, Says Rights Group

Strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, who has held power since 1994, appears to be tightening his grip through widespread repression to secure a seventh term.

Authorities have detained over 100 individuals within the past week, the Minsk-based Viasna human rights center reported on Wednesday.

Many of those arrested are associated with online chat groups, which the government recently labeled as “extremist,” claiming they were part of a conspiracy.

The community chats, which once served to organize protests against alleged election fraud in 2020, are viewed by the government as security threats.

Belarusian jails are reportedly overcrowded, with detainees—many of them political prisoners—facing poor and often inhumane conditions, Viasna said.

Increased treason convictions

There has also been a sharp uptick in treason convictions, with 88 people sentenced for the crime this year—double the amount recorded nine years ago, according to Viasna.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition leader now in exile, condemned the government’s crackdown and urged Western countries to respond while calling on Belarusians to reject all pro-regime candidates.

She said on her personal website that there has been a “wave of searches and arrests... across Belarus. The regime even conducted a raid in a town of just two thousand, detaining 14 innocent people. From this one instance, we can only imagine the scale of detentions across the country.”

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Since 1994, Belarus has not held an election deemed free or fair, political commentators have noted. Lukashenko’s widely disputed claim of victory with 80% of the vote in the last presidential election sparked mass protests and a brutal suppression of dissent.

In its bid to silence opposition, Lukashenko’s regime has systematically dismantled independent media, shut down over 1,700 non-profit organizations, outlawed all but four pro-government political parties, and imprisoned more than 1,300 political opponents.