11 Minors Sentenced for Political Reasons in Belarus in Six Months
According to judicial statistics, in the first half of 2026, Belarusian courts handed down sentences to 239 teenagers, 11 of whom were tried under political articles.
Illustrative photo from social media
For what they were tried
In the first 6 months of this year, eleven teenagers were punished under politically motivated articles of the Criminal Code:
- 9 people were convicted for "assisting extremist activities" (Art. 361-4 of the Criminal Code);
- 1 person — for calls to actions aimed at harming national security (Art. 361 of the Criminal Code);
- 1 person — for destroying state symbols (Art. 370 of the Criminal Code).
What punishments were assigned
22 teenagers (9.2%) received real prison terms;
54 teenagers (22.6%) were granted a deferment of sentence by the courts;
57 people (23.8%) were sent to compulsory educational measures;
9 teenagers (3.8%) received a suspended sentence;
2 people (0.8%) were released from serving their sentence;
Other types of punishments were applied to 95 people (39.7%).