Belarus jails: Stories of fear and violence

Belarus’s jails and detention centres are holding hundreds of people described as political prisoners, whether they are political opponents, independent journalists or protesters.

Some 7,000 Belarusians were rounded up and thrown into crowded prisons in a matter of days, when they took to the streets in August 2020 to denounce the presidential election as rigged. Reports suggested beatings and torture were rife.

The arrests have continued and jail terms too. That is the situation facing captured blogger Roman Protasevich and his student girlfriend. Mr Protasevich said before he was detained he feared the death penalty, which Belarus still has, because he had seen his name on a terrorism list.

One shocking official video, purportedly of a political activist who died last week, shows a man collapsing unconscious in his cell. Belarus’s biggest independent news_copy site Tut.by has been raided and its top editors put in jail.