On August 5, the Council of the European Union introduced new sanctions against the Belarusian authorities.
Restrictive measures were imposed on 28 people for their role in internal repression and human rights violations in Belarus. In particular, against two deputy heads of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This unit is responsible for political persecution, including arbitrary and unlawful arrests and ill-treatment, including torture, of activists and members of civil society. This is stated in a statement by the EU Council.
The sanctions list includes prosecutors and judges who handed down politically motivated sentences, including against those who protested against the falsification of the 2020 presidential elections or simply expressed their opinion against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. Restrictive measures were also introduced against the heads of various correctional institutions.
Sanctions were also imposed against Belarusian media professionals – Irina Akulovich, CEO of the largest state news agency BelTA, Nikita Rachilovsky, host of the “Senate” TV program on the STV channel, and Dmitry Zhuk, former head of Lukashenko’s press service. These individuals, as stated in the statement, provided the Belarusian public with false information about the repressions and spread disinformation.
Brussels recalled that 261 individuals and 37 legal entities are currently under European sanctions.
Let us recall that in July, the Council of the European Union extended the sanctions imposed against Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine until January 31, 2025.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.