On August 13, Belarusian women launched the Girl Power Belarus Telegram channel. https://t.me/girlspowerblr

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya established the United Transitional Cabinet. She announced it while summing up the results of the New Belarus Conference in Vilnius and noted that the decision was made following the discussions of the last two days. In addition to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Cabinet includes four men. The Cabinet will expand, and Ms. Tsikhanouskaya at the conference addressed Belarusian women, inviting them to join it.

Journalist Maryia Hryts made a flag with the names of politically persecuted women. Maryia timed it to the second anniversary of the first women’s rally in Belarus.

The Support UA Women initiative, founded by Belarusian women, purchased another batch of aid for those who suffered from sexualized violence in the war. The money raised by the initiative (16,312 euros) helped purchase pharmaceuticals.

Inna Shyrokaya, a mother of five children from Hrodna, was sentenced to 3 years of home confinement over her participation in protest rallies. At the moment, Inna and her children are safe abroad.

Iryna Slaunikava, a journalist for the Polish TV channel TVP, was sentenced to 5 years in prison. The journalist was charged with “creating an extremist formation” and “organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order”.

Singer Meryem Herasimenka performed a song by the Ukrainian band Okean Elzy at an event in a Minsk bar. After that, she was detained for a total of 30 days. It is also alleged that Meryem had joined a fundraiser for a Bayraktar UAV for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Halina Patayeva, director of the Viapol travel agency, was detained in Belarus.

Viktoryia Onakhava-Zhurauliova was fined 30 base values [~390 euros as of 08.2022] for “sharing extremist materials”. The woman brings up 13 children, 9 of whom are adopted. In March, she was sentenced to 3 years of home confinement over a message in a Telegram chat. The fine was imposed over a link to an “extremist resource” Viktoryia posted on social media 2 years ago. This year, the link was found by a local policeman who was browsing Viktoryia’s pages.

The regime is increasingly arresting whole families. GUBAZiK (the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption) officers detained a family working in the TDTIproekt company, including the 65-year-old CEO, his 66-year-old wife, who works as the chief architect of the organization, their 35-year-old daughter, and her husband, who work as the architects. They are accused of participating in the protests in 2020.

Aksana Kolb, editor-in-chief of Novy Chas, left Belarus.

Political prisoner Volha Harbunova, a former head of a shelter for women and children affected by family abuse, left Belarus. In May, Volha was sentenced to 3 years of home confinement over participating in the 2020 protests.

Pressure on Belarusian women who left the country to avoid persecution continues. The regime detained the father of journalist Alina Bolbas, who left the country in 2020 and now lives in Poland.

Belarusian Yana Pinchuk was extradited from Russia to Belarus. Yana is charged with five articles of the Criminal Code, including calls for the seizure of power and the creation of an extremist formation. She faces up to 19 years in prison.

Vitsiebsk journalist Tatsiana Matveyeva was sentenced to 8 days of arrest over her 2022 Facebook post. It featured a photo with a white-red-white flag. As no permission from the local government was obtained for that, the court considered it an act of “expressing her socio-political position”.

Natallia Taran, 74, was sentenced to 3.5 years in a prison over “insulting and slandering” of the person calling himself the president of Belarus.

Nadzeya Polkina was sentenced to 2 years in prison, and Natallia Ked to 2 years of restricted freedom in a “terrorism” case.

Political prisoner Alena Nestsiarovich was sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony. She was detained as part of a criminal case initiated for comments on social networks about the death of KGB officer Dzmitry Fedasiuk and IT specialist Andrei Zeltsar.

Maryia Uspenskaya, the widow of Andrei Zeltsar, was transferred from the pre-trial detention center to a mental institution in Minsk. Context: on September 28, 2021, security forces came to search the apartment of Andrei Zeltsar. He and KGB officer Dzmitry Fedasiuk were killed in the shootout. Maryia was accused of complicity in the murder.

The security forces detained Sviatlana Herasimovich, the mother of Belarusian singer Rita Dakota, over “participating in mass riots, cyberbullying, and supporting the Ukrainian regime”.

Hanna Pyshnik from Mazyr was sentenced to 3 years in prison on charges of promoting extremist activities. The prosecution claimed she had “filmed a video picturing the movement of helicopters to send it to a biased, destructive media resource”. The woman was recognized as a political prisoner, she has a minor daughter.

Political prisoner Alena Hnauk was recently transferred from the Baranavichy Pre-trial detention center No. 6 to Homiel colony No. 4. Alena had been sentenced to 3 years of home confinement over participating in protests in Brest. During the home confinement, she was arrested again and accused of slander against the man calling himself the president of Belarus, as well as of discrediting Belarus, and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. Before the transfer, Alena spent 80 days in the punishment cell.

In April of this year, Nina Bahinskaya was fined 1,600 rubles [~450 euros as of 04.2022], after she appeared in Minsk downtown on Freedom Day with a white-red-white flag national flag. Bahinskaya did not pay the fine. The court prohibited Nina Bahinskaya from hunting and driving a car and small vessels, while telecom operators were prohibited from providing her with mobile, Internet, and television services.

A ceramist from Minsk, Natallia Karneyeva, was detained on August 19 with her husband. Her ten-year-old daughter Bahdana was taken to a children’s shelter.

On August 25, Anatoli Latushka’s wife Alena was detained. Anatoli Latushka, Pavel Latushka’s cousin, is a political prisoner. He was detained in January 2022.

A lawyer with 18 years of experience in the field, Yulia Yurhilevich, was detained in Hrodna. Her house was searched, as the Pahonia Telegram channel has reported. Yurhilevich used to defend political prisoners Ales Pushkin, Artsiom Bayarski, and Ihar Bantser. In February of this year, she was expelled from the Hrodna Regional Bar Association over “systematic violations of the law”.

Tourist guide Sviatlana Hryshkevich was arrested for 12 days, Nasha Niva has reported. She was tried for “petty hooliganism”. The reason was “conducting guided tours making historical parallels exclusively according to her own “white-red-white beliefs”.

Alena Malkevich was detained for participating in protests in 2020. To detain her, the security forces conducted a special operation – several of them descended from the roof and entered the apartment through the windows, and some broke into the door.

Aliaksandra Dolhaya was detained over a video on TikTok in which she speaks out in support of Ukraine and against Russian troops. The woman has a child with a disability.