Belarus: Human Rights Defender Faces Criminal Charges
Nasta (Anastasia) Loika is a prominent human rights defender and educator, focusing her work on human rights violations resulting from the use of the repressive “anti-extremist” legislation in Belarus, the protection of foreign nationals and stateless persons in Belarus, and on human rights education.
Nasta Loika was arbitrarily detained on 6 September 2022 as she was leaving the Minsk City Court after attending a court hearing in the trial against fellow human rights defenders Marfa Rabkova, Andrei Chapyuk and their eight co-defendants. They were handed lengthy prison sentences on fabricated charges. On 7 September 2022, Nasta Loika was sentenced to 15 days in detention, purportedly for “petty hooliganism”, a violation under Article 19.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences. On 22 September 2022, the Frunzenski District Court of Minsk sentenced her again to 15 days in detention under the same Article. During her detention Nasta Loika was denied access to her lawyer and denied necessary medical treatment and basic necessities, including warm clothes and drinking water. She was released on 6 October 2022, after serving her sentence.
On 28 October 2022, Nasta Loika was again arbitrarily detained in Minsk and sentenced on 31 October 2022 to 15 days in prison under the same charges of “petty hooliganism”. Shortly after her arrest on 28 October, a “confession video” featuring Nasta Loika appeared on a Telegram channel believed to be linked to the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption, a structure of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs that has been regularly used by the Belarusian authorities to crack down on political opposition and all dissent in the country. Numerous human rights violations by its officers have been reported in recent years. The Belarusian authorities have repeatedly used video “confessions” extracted under duress from arrested government critics and activists.
Nasta Loika was not released after serving her 15-day sentence on 12 November 2022 and allegations of “petty hooliganism” were again brought against her. During the online hearing, Nasta Loika reported that she had been tortured with electric shock during questioning and that she was left for eight hours in the courtyard outside without outerwear. She felt ill as a result of the cold temperatures. The prison authorities were refusing to deliver parcels to Nasta Loika with medicines, personal hygiene products and warm clothes that she urgently needs.
On 24 December 2022, after five 15-day detention terms, criminal charges were brought against Nasta Loika: under Article 342.1 (“Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them”) and 130.3 (“inciting racial, national, religious or other social enmity or discord”). The basis for the latest accusation was Nasta's alleged participation in the writing of a report on the persecution of members of anarchist groups in Belarus in 2018. The report provides a critical assessment of the activities of police officers, which the investigators have qualified as "inciting enmity" against police officers as “a professional group”, an “extremism” related charge. This is yet another example of the blatant criminalization of human rights work by the Belarusian authorities.