Association of Political Prisoners of Belarus’ website blocked in Belarus

The State Inspec­torate of Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions under the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Infor­ma­tion has blocked access to the web­site of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers of Belarus. The web­site apbel.com was cen­sored at the request of the pros­e­cu­tor of the Mahilou Region, Valer Kulikovich.

Screen­shot of the web­site of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers of Belarus

The prosecutor’s office said the deci­sion was based on vio­la­tions of the law on mass media.

“In par­tic­u­lar, the web resource pub­lished infor­ma­tion mate­ri­als with extrem­ist char­ac­ter­is­tics and aimed at dis­cred­it­ing the author­i­ties. The actions of the peo­ple who have com­mit­ted vio­la­tions and crimes have been legit­imized, and they have been giv­en the pseu­do-sta­tus of ‘polit­i­cal pris­on­ers’. Then such cit­i­zens were offered free for­eign spon­sor­ship,” the Belaru­sian Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office web­site report­ed.

The Asso­ci­a­tion of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers of Belarus was estab­lished in 2024 by for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­ers who were com­pelled to seek asy­lum in var­i­ous coun­tries. The pri­ma­ry objec­tive of the ini­tia­tive is to assist polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and their fam­i­lies in Belarus and abroad.