# Belarus jails activist Dzmitry Kuchuk for six years in latest dissent crackdown

Event date: 2024-12-24

A Belarusian court has sentenced opposition activist Dzmitry Kuchuk to six years in prison and fined him about $6,000, according to the country’s leading human rights group, Viasna, in a case that underscores the government’s continuing drive against political opponents.

Kuchuk, who led the Green Party before it was shut down last year, was convicted of gross violations of public order and of calling for actions aimed at undermining national security. The verdict was delivered behind closed doors in Minsk and announced on Tuesday, though human rights monitors said the details only became public days later.

The punishment adds another name to a swelling list of political prisoners in Belarus, where authorities have kept pressure on activists, journalists and opposition figures since the mass protests that followed the disputed 2020 presidential election. Kuchuk’s case fits a familiar pattern: arrest, repeated short jail terms, criminal charges and then a prison sentence in a case that rights groups say is designed to deter public dissent.

According to Viasna, Kuchuk was arrested on Feb. 16 in Minsk near the Russian Embassy while he was there to lay flowers and light a candle in memory of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose death was announced that day. The group also said he was beaten during the arrest and that his health worsened while he was held before trial.

The AP report said Kuchuk rose to prominence in 2016 after protesting the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus. It also noted that his Green Party was dissolved by the Belarusian Supreme Court last July as part of a broader purge of political parties ahead of the 2024 parliamentary election.

Belarus remains one of Europe’s most repressive political environments. Security services have arrested tens of thousands of people since the 2020 protests, and the crackdown has intensified as President Alexander Lukashenko seeks another term in office. Kuchuk’s sentence is part of that wider campaign: a closed trial, a severe prison term and a public warning to others who might think about organizing outside state control.

For Belarusian opposition figures, the scale of the sentence matters as much as the charges. Six years in prison is long enough to remove an organiser from public life for most of a political cycle, and the combination of prison time and a fine adds financial punishment to the criminal conviction. The case also reinforces the reality that even low-visibility acts of protest, such as memorial gestures near diplomatic sites, can still carry major legal consequences in Belarus.

Rights groups say the number of political prisoners in the country has remained stubbornly high, and Kuchuk’s conviction will likely be read abroad as another sign that the Belarusian state is not easing its campaign against dissent. With the next presidential vote approaching, the message from Minsk appears unchanged: opposition politics, even in symbolic form, remains a criminal risk.