Over 2K people sentenced under 'people's article' since 2020

Activists of the Viasna Human Rights Center calculated that at least 2,422 people have been convicted under the "people's" article since 2020.

The article in question is 342 of the Criminal Code - organizing, preparing, or actively participating in actions that grossly violate public order.

Since the first sentence under this article was passed in November 2020 (teenagers in Mazyr received a one-year suspended sentence for throwing stones at a police car), a Belarusian court has convicted an average of six people a day (human rights activists took into account the judges' days off).