Former journalist Larisa Shchirakova was detained in Gomla on December 6.

In recent years, she has not cooperated with the media, engaged in ethnophoto sessions, enrolled to study as a psychologist.

As Svaboda learned, Shchirakova is accused of "discrediting the Republic of Belarus."

We tell you how and who has already been convicted for this in Belarus.

Discrediting the Republic of Belarus is "knowingly false information"

It is known about Larisa Shchyrakova that she is currently in a pre-trial detention center.

According to friends, he is doing well, his health is fine.

"The discrediting of the Republic of Belarus was "hanged" on her.

"Probably because she gave an interview where she said the wrong thing about the state," said one of Svoboda's sources.

A lawyer visited Shchirakova in prison, but she has a non-extradition bond.

According to Article 369-1 of the Criminal Code, "discrediting the Republic of Belarus" is the dissemination of "knowingly false information about the political, economic, social, military or international situation of the Republic of Belarus."

This is also the spread of "false information about the legal status of citizens in Belarus, the activities of state bodies."

Such actions must be done publicly.

Let's say, in the media or on the Internet.

The Criminal Code provides for a punishment of up to 4 years of imprisonment for this.

Wrote an article in "Wikipedia"

In April 2022, Pavlo Pernikov, one of the editors of "Wikipedia", was tried in Brest.

He was sentenced to two years in prison for "discrediting the Republic of Belarus."

The investigators conducting Pernikov's case found "discredit" in the articles posted by him in "Wikipedia".

Pernikov wrote several articles about the murder of journalist Veronika Cherkasova, and also prepared other publications.

Brought proposals to the Constitution

In June, pensioner Mykolai Vitikov was tried in Gomli.

Before the referendum on February 27, 2022, the government actively called on citizens to participate in the discussion of amendments to the Constitution.

The pensioner took advantage of this offer and went to jail.

The reason for his detention was his letter to the Mayak newspaper regarding the discussion of changes to the basic law.

Instead of discussing the pensioner's proposals, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Iryna Kanovalova, reported the activist to the police.

It is known that in his letter Vitikov called the All-Belarusian Assembly a "sabbath".

According to the indictment, the pensioner wanted to "spread false information to a wide range of people."

Vitikau himself said at the court that he was not going to spread his thoughts - he just wanted to share them with the deputy and the editor.

The result is 8 months of imprisonment.

Posted a video in Viber chat

In July 2022, Vasil Chih, a resident of Brest, was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for "discrediting the Republic of Belarus".

According to the indictment, on March 16, he "posted a video recording with knowingly false information about the economic and social situation of the Republic of Belarus" in one of the railway workers' Viber chats.

It is not known what exactly was reported there and in what form.

Filmed videos for a foreign TV channel

In November 2022, former BT journalist Dmitriy Luksha was tried in Minsk.

He received 4 years in prison and a large fine.

Luksha was accused of "mass riots" and "discrediting the Republic of Belarus."

According to the indictment, "with the aim of discrediting the Republic of Belarus, he created a number of video stories containing knowingly false information."

State media reported that Luksha, with the help of his wife, who called herself a citizen of Syria on camera, was filming a story about the migration crisis on the border of Belarus and Poland.

The wife told about the violation of migrants' rights.

He expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased

At the end of September 2021, the well-known Gomel volunteer Ilya Mironov, after the high-profile shootout in Minsk, where Andrei Zeltsar and KGB officer Dmytri Fedasiuk were killed, wrote condolences to Zeltsar's relatives on his page.

The prosecution and the court considered that in this way he "discredited the Republic of Belarus, positively evaluated Andrei Zeltsar and negatively - KGB employees."

As a result, Mironov received a year and a half in prison.

In addition to imprisonment, he must pay a large fine.

Wrote "hopota" and "broke into the apartment"

In November 2022, Mykolai Katsura was tried in Gomla for "discrediting the Republic of Belarus".

He received a year and a half in prison and has already been released, as he has served his term (a day spent in a pre-trial detention center counts as a day and a half in a prison. — RS).

In one of the UKontakte communities, Katsura discussed the shootout in Minsk, which resulted in the death of a KGB employee and Andrei Zeltsar.

The words "gopota" and "lomitsya" were in the statements of the resident of Goml.

According to the investigation, the prosecutor's office and the judge, Katsura discredited the Republic of Belarus with these words.

"Negative assessment of these persons is expressed in the semantics of the rhetorical question, 'Are they those who broke into the apartment?', by the negative assessment of the actions of these persons - the verb ``to break,''" the experts concluded.

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Presidential elections - 2020 in Belarus.

What is important to know

• The sixth presidential election in the history of sovereign Belarus is scheduled for Sunday,

  August 9, 2020

  .

• 65-year-old

  Alexander Lukashenko

  has ruled the state for 25 years.

  None of the presidential elections (2001, 2006, 2010, 2015), except for the first one (1994), was recognized as free and fair at the international level.

• Chairwoman of the CEC

  Lydia Yarmoshyna

  rejected the proposals of human rights activists on remote presidential elections during the COVID-19 epidemic, because "there is no time to take these measures."

  Lukashenka saw no reason to postpone the elections due to the pandemic.

• The CEC registered 15 initiative groups from 55 applications.

• The Central Electoral Commission refused the registration of the initiative group to the author of the YouTube channel "Strana dlya zhizni"

  Syarhei Tsikhanovsky

  , because he was serving 15 days of arrest and could not submit documents in person.

  Then Svetlana Tikhanovskaya

  , the wife of the blogger, declared her initiative group in the CEC

  .

• On May 29, Tsikhanovskyi and 9 other people were detained at the pre-election picket.

  Lukashenka spoke about the circumstances of the detention 4 hours before it happened.

• On June 11, Belgazprombank and a number of other companies were searched.

  The State Control Committee announced that they had opened criminal cases on the legalization of funds obtained through criminal means and on tax evasion in a particularly large amount.

  Chairman of the

  Communist Party of Ukraine Ivan Tertel

  claimed that potential presidential candidate

  Viktar Babaryka

  is involved in these cases .

  Exactly 4 hours before the statement to the State Control

  , Alexander Lukashenko

  spoke about the circumstances of the "Belgazprombank" case.

• On June 18, Viktar Babarika and his son, head of the initiative group Eduard Babarika, were detained.

• On July 14, the CEC registered as presidential candidates

  Alexander Lukashenko

  ,

  Svetlana Tikhanovskaya

  ,

  Anna Kanapatskaya

  ,

  Andrey Dmitriev

  and

  Sergey Cherachny

  .

  Viktor Babarika

  and

  Valero

  Tsapkala were not registered

  .

• Since the beginning of the election campaign, human rights activists have counted more than 1,300 detainees: members of "solidarity chains", members of initiative groups, activists, politicians, bloggers, journalists and just passers-by on the street.

  Hundreds of people were punished with administrative arrests and fined.

European Union sanctions against Lukashenka's regime

Economic sectoral sanctions were introduced by the European Union after the incident with the forced landing of the Ryanair plane in Minsk on May 23, 2021 and the subsequent detention of journalist

and his partner

, as well as due to human rights violations and repression.

The motivational part of the adopted decision mentions, in particular, the escalation of serious violations of human rights in Belarus and brutal repression against civil society, the democratic opposition and journalists, as well as persons belonging to national minorities.

On June 24, 2021, the European Union introduced the following restrictive measures:

• In the export and transfer of equipment, technologies or software intended for use in the interests of the Belarusian authorities in monitoring or intercepting Internet and telephone communications on mobile or stationary devices.

• In the export to Belarus of dual purpose goods for military use.

• Goods used for tobacco products are exported to Belarus.

• In the import of petroleum products from Belarus to the EU.

• In the import of potash fertilizers from Belarus to the EU,

• The government of Belarus, as well as Belarusian state financial institutions and entities, have access to the financial markets of the EU.

• The European Investment Bank is prohibited from financing projects in the public sector of Belarus.

Earlier, at a meeting in Luxembourg on June 21, 2021, the ministers of foreign affairs of the European Union approved the fourth package of sanctions against the Belarusian regime after the 2020 presidential elections in Belarus.

The sanctions list of 78 people and 8 organizations, whose assets are frozen and visas to the European Union are prohibited, has been published in the official journal of the European Union, thus it gains power.

Even earlier, in October, November and December 2020, the European Union introduced three packages of sanctions against the authorities of Belarus.

Restrictive measures concern officials, as well as some enterprises.

In total, there were 84 persons on the sanctions list who were banned from entering the EU countries.

The list includes

, his son

, the head of the CEC

the chairman of the KGB

, the chairman of the Investigative Committee

, the Prosecutor General

and other security forces, as well as judges and members of election commissions.

Among other things, the EC imposed sanctions against legal entities: CJSC "Beltechexport", "Dana Holdings/Dana Astra", Management of the Affairs of the President of Belarus, LLC "Synesis", JSC "AGAT - Electromechanical Plant", JSC "140th Repair Plant" and JSC "Minsk plant of wheeled tractors".