EHU — "extremist organization." What should students and graduates do now? And what threatens them?

Illustrative photo. Photo: "Nasha Niva"

On April 14, it became known that the Supreme Court recognized the European Humanities University as an "extremist organization." What does this mean and what now threatens people who are in one way or another connected with this university?

Currently, there are 345 "extremist formations" and 7 "extremist organizations" in Belarus. The fundamental difference between them is unclear. Especially since the Belarusian Investigative Center and the publication "Zerkalo" are considered both formations and organizations simultaneously.

The technical distinction is that "extremist formations" are declared by decisions of the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, while "extremist organizations" are declared by a decision of the Supreme Court. However, all of them are listed together with continuous numbering.

Theoretically, participants of an "extremist organization" — including EHU — should not be subject to Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code (Creation of an extremist formation or participation in it). However, there are enough other articles that could be attributed to anyone associated with EHU:

• 361-2 (financing extremist activities)
• 361-4 (facilitating extremist activities)
• 361-5 (undergoing training or other preparation for participation in extremist activities).

All of them also allow for prison sentences. Maximum — 7 years.

EHU has not yet commented on the situation.

Here's what "Viasna" believes on this topic:

"Until recently, only the university's information materials were recognized as extremist. This meant a risk of administrative liability, for example, several days of arrest for reposting a publication from EHU's social networks. Now the situation has radically worsened: the new status entails the threat of real criminal sentences.

It is important to understand that these risks equally apply to the entire academic community: current students, graduates, expelled students, as well as faculty and administration. The main threat lies in criminal prosecution under articles for facilitating extremist activities under Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code and its financing under Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code.

In addition, it is necessary to take into account the alarming dynamics of 2025 and 2026. During this period, a serious increase in the number of student recruitment attempts and direct threats on social networks has been recorded, primarily from employees of Belarusian special services.

The main and insistent recommendation: everyone who has or has ever had any connection to the university should refrain from traveling to Belarus. The risk of criminal prosecution is absolutely real and applies to everyone.

It is necessary to conduct a strict audit of your digital hygiene: completely hide or delete any mentions of studying/working at EHU from public profiles, clean up correspondence history and photo archives, unsubscribe from university pages from your main accounts. Under no circumstances should you engage in dialogue with suspicious accounts that offer to "resolve the issue" or threaten consequences," the commentary prepared for "Nasha Niva" states.

The authorities also commented on the issue, though so far quite obliquely: with a semi-literate post (which confuses extremist "formations" and "organizations") in the garbage channel "ZS. Education," close to the Ministry of Education. It is difficult to understand how much of this post is the personal opinion of the administrators, and how much is a real explanation of how the authorities plan to act further.

"Now the mere fact of interacting with the university, reposting information about it, logging into social networks, not to mention enrollment, will be classified under articles on participation in an extremist formation.

Those who hold EHU diplomas from previous years, but have not committed crimes, will NOT be automatically brought to criminal responsibility. However, after the Supreme Court's decision comes into force, studying and obtaining a diploma may be qualified under Articles 361-5, 361-1, 361-4 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. The dissemination of symbols, EHU publications, and so on is also prohibited."

• 2
• 3
• 3
• 12
• 0
• 0
• 16
• 0