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Belarus using justice system to silence Lukashenko critics, say UN experts

The experts said arbitrary arrests, torture and closed trials have continued since May 2020, with abuses possibly amounting to crimes against humanity.

  • On Tuesday, U.N. experts said Belarusian state institutions have coordinated repression of critics since 2020 through arrests, imprisonment and surveillance, with courts, police, security services and prosecutors acting together to silence opponents.
  • Six years after the disputed August 2020 election sparked mass protests, thousands were detained in the crackdown while President Alexander Lukashenko denies holding political prisoners, describing them as "bandits."
  • Experts documented "systematic" violations spanning arrest through post-release supervision, including arbitrary arrests, torture, closed trials and harassment of former detainees, with the judiciary legitimising abuses and denying victims remedies.
  • Belarus violated multiple international treaties with abuses potentially amounting to crimes against humanity, experts determined, while Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski told Reuters earlier this month that "the machinery of repression keeps running."
  • The report will be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council this week, though the Belarus mission did not immediately respond to comment requests, maintaining its pattern of rejecting international scrutiny.
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The Straits Times broke the news in Singapore, Singapore on Tuesday, September 15, 2026.
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