In the report "Belarusian Change Tracker", written in Russian, the researchers noted that the number of politically motivated detentions recorded by human rights defenders increased in Belarus in the fall of 2022.

If in the summer, on average, 100-120 people were detained per month, then in the fall - as much as 3.5 times more.

The number of politically motivated lawsuits also increased: in autumn there were an average of 145 per month, in previous months - 84.

The terms of criminal punishments have increased.

If in the summer the average monthly prison terms were approximately 125-127 years, then in September this indicator was 412, in October - 426 years.

This growth is connected with the consideration of several high-profile cases - BelaPAN, Autukhovich, the "Storks fly" group, "cases of ten".

The pace of recognition of prisoners as "political" is increasing.

In the summer, their monthly increase was by an average of 87 people, in the autumn - by 110 (and in November, in general, a plus of 139 people).

The autumn arrests had several features:

  • The tendency to persecute the relatives of political prisoners remained.

    Sometimes they are detained by families;

  • The trend towards "corporate" arrests, when employees of one company, and of the most different profile, are taken;

  • The trend of repression of certain professional groups - from priests to truck drivers - is spreading.

    Repression against the legal profession and the media reached a new level.

    Lawyers who take part in high-profile political cases are not only deprived of their licenses, but sometimes criminal cases are brought against them.

    As for independent journalists, they persecute not only those who write about politics, but also from media of other formats, for example, about sports or economics (cases of "Pressbol", portal Blizko.by, online publication "Babruyski Kurier") ;

  • Criminal cases have started to be instituted for interviews with the media, which are recognized as "extremist formations".

  • Some political prisoners are charged with new charges and given repeated terms.

The report "Belarusian change tracker" covers the analysis of three months - September, October, November.

The goal is to capture and explore trends.

Pavel Slyunkin, associate analyst of the European Council in international relations ,

Artem

Shreibman

, founder of the Sense Analytics agency

, independent sociologist

Pilip Bikanov

, program director of the "Belarusian Academy" and senior analyst of the "Center for New Ideas"

Genadz Korshunov

, academic director of BEROC

and senior researcher

Kateryna Barnukova worked

on the report. BEROC employee

Lev Lvovsky

.