“адміністратаркай трох пратэсных тэлеграм-каналаў”
12 yrs
sentence
Finding · Belarus
Jailed for words, not the street
Women are a small share of Belarus’s documented political prisoners — but those who are jailed are overwhelmingly prosecuted for journalism and online speech, and almost never for street protest.
Live from the case database · as of July 16, 2026
15%
women overall
182 of 1235 documented cases
22%
in social media
women’s share (highest)
4%
in street protest
women’s share (lowest)
5.5×
speech vs street gap
social media ÷ protest
01Why this holds
Across the documented Belarusian cases, women are 15% of political prisoners overall — but that average hides a sharp split. In press and online-speech cases women are far better represented than in street-protest cases, where they are almost absent. It suggests the repression of women runs through what they publish rather than where they stand.
02Women’s share of documented cases, by what they were accused of
social media
41/188 · 22%
activism
55/291 · 19%
journalism
10/53 · 19%
other
47/335 · 14%
political
8/76 · 11%
protest
9/236 · 4%
Categories with at least 20 documented cases. Each bar is the share of that category’s cases that are women; the baseline across all cases is 15%.
03What the cases rest on
Unknown
99 · 54%
Online Speech
49 · 27%
Financial Support
16 · 9%
Physical Presence
13 · 7%
Device Evidence
1 · 1%
Social Media Monitoring
1 · 1%
Informant / Secret Witness
1 · 1%
State Fabrication
1 · 1%
Intercepted Communications
1 · 1%
04How to read this honestly
- §These are cases documented in our database (primarily from the Viasna Human Rights Centre), not a count of every prosecution. The value here is case-level detail: what each person actually did, with a source.
- §Gender is recorded for every documented case, but case-category is an editorial classification and a case can touch more than one theme; it is filed under its primary one.
- §These shares compare cases within our documented set, not the total prison population, and "protest" counts cases classified as street-protest participation rather than every person detained at a demonstration.
05The receipts · 182 cases
Every documented case in this group, each linking to its profile and primary source.
“Яе абвінавачваюць у адміністраванні некалькіх экстрэмісцкіх Telegram-каналаў і даванні інтэрв'ю экстрэмісцкім рэсурсам.”
10 yrs
sentence
“«справы дваровых чатаў»”
9 yrs
sentence
Viktoryja HrynkoArt. 357
“па справе "дваровых чатаў"”
9 yrs
sentence
“у рамках якой пераследавалі жыхароў за дыскусіі ў інтэрнэце”
8 yrs
sentence
“Яе абвінавачваюць у прыналежнасці да экстрэмісцкай кааліцыі «Ордэн», у якую ўваходзяць розныя дваровыя чаты.”
8 yrs
sentence
8 yrs
sentence
Iryna JakaulevaArt. 357
“«дваровых чатаў», якая ўключала мясцовыя камунікацыйныя групы”
8 yrs
sentence
Anzhela AharokArt. 357
“«дваровых чатаў», якая закранае мясцовыя суседскія чаты”
8 yrs
sentence
10 yrs
sentence
“Яй прысудзілі 6 гадоў калоніі за рассылку паведамленняў, якія абражалі прэзідэнта, суддзяў і прадстаўнікоў улады.”
6 yrs
sentence
“за перадачу асабістых дадзеных сілавікоў тэлеграм-каналу "Черная Книга Беларуси"”
6 yrs
sentence
“перадачу асабістых дадзеных сілавікоў тэлеграм-каналу «Чорная кніга Беларусі»”
5 yrs
sentence
Vijaleta VjarbickajaArt. 130
“за распальванне сацыяльнай варожасці пасля стварэння сям'ёй відэароліка”
5 yrs
sentence
“падрыхтоўцы артыкулаў для нямецкага выдання "Die Tageszeitung", у якіх знайшлі выказванні, накіраваныя на распальванне варожасці і дыскрэдытацыю Рэспублікі Беларусь”
4 yrs
sentence
Alena ZhukavaArt. 361-1
“ўдзеле ў экстрэмісцкім фармаванні праз тэлеграм-чаты”
2 yrs
sentence
“стварэнне экстрэмісцкага фармавання і заклікі да захадаў абмежавальнага характару”
4 yrs
sentence
“звязаных з яе каментарамі ў тэлеграме”
3 yrs
sentence
“за ўдзел у раённым чаце «Белыя крылы Баранавічы»”
3 yrs
sentence
“каментароў у тэлеграм-каналах”
3 yrs
sentence
“по статьям 361 и 361-4 Уголовного кодекса за призывы к действиям, направленным на причинение вреда национальной безопасности, и содействие экстремистской деятельности”
3 yrs
sentence
Volha PrakopczykArt. 361-1
“удзеле ў экстрэмісцкім фармаванні праз тэлеграм-чаты”
2 yrs
sentence
Iryna KiszkurnaArt. 361-1
“па справе 'дваровых чатаў'”
2 yrs
sentence
Anastasiya SikirytskayaArt. 361-1
“«делом чатов соседских сообществ»”
2 yrs
sentence
Cite this finding
Political Prisoner Watch, "Jailed for words, not the street: gender and charge composition among documented Belarusian political prisoners" (as of July 16, 2026).
https://politicalprisonerwatch.org/findings/belarus-women-speech
More findings · Belarus
The extremism machine
Belarus rewrote how it jails dissenters without writing new laws. In 2020 almost no one was charged as an “extremist.” By 2025, three in four documented arrests were — a wholesale shift from public-order charges to national-security law.
The sentence lottery
Same charge, same year, different judge — a different life. Across documented Belarusian political cases, identically charged defendants drew sentences years apart depending on which judge heard the case. When we reshuffled judges at random five hundred times, a spread this large never appeared once.