Belarusian Hajun is a civic monitoring project launched in early 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Through a Telegram bot and community, it collected photos and information on the movement of Russian military equipment across Belarus. As early as 2022 the authorities of Belarus designated the project an extremist formation; in subsequent years participants and those who passed on data have mainly been charged under Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code—“assistance to extremist activity.”

Turning point: compromise of the bot in February 2025

On 5 February 2025 law enforcement gained access to the bot’s infrastructure (publicly described as a hack or compromise). Independent media estimated that data on roughly 30,000 users who had submitted material was exposed. Founder Anton Motolko announced the closure of the project. A mass wave of detentions across the country followed.

The founder: trial in absentia

Anton Motolko (journalist, media strategist, in exile since 2020) was sentenced in absentia by the Hrodna Regional Court in June 2025 to 20 years in a penal colony and a large fine (reports cited on the order of €24,000–28,000 / 84,000 BYN). Charges in various summaries included treason, calls to seize power, mass disorder, discreditation [of Belarus], and a number of other articles. The ruling could be appealed.

Trials and articles

Those who sent messages to the bot have been prosecuted in large numbers under Part 1 and/or Part 2 of Article 361-4. As Nasha Niva explained, a single submission is charged under Part 1 (up to 4 years of restriction of liberty without imprisonment—“home restriction” [often called “home chemistry” in Belarusian context], or 2–6 years in a colony); several messages trigger Part 2 as well (2–5 years of “chemistry” [restriction with assignment to an institution] or 3–7 years in a colony). The same article is applied to other forms of “assistance” to extremist structures and media, so not everyone convicted under 361-4 belongs in “pure Hayun” statistics without checking the case file.

According to a Nasha Niva sample of people convicted only under 361-4 with a final sentence after July 2025 (when the “pipeline” began after the breach), of 75 people, 65% received home restriction, 35% received harsher penalties (colony or “chemistry” with placement in a correctional facility).

Detentions in 2026

The human rights centre Viasna publicly raised its minimum estimates of the number of people in custody specifically in the Hayun line:

• 19 January 2026 — at least 163 people detained and remanded.
• Early February 2026 — an update cited at least 175 detainees.
• A later figure — at least 183 people held in custody.

Viasna and Mediazona stressed that people keep becoming suspects across the country and that proceedings are not winding down.

In a January roundup Mediazona noted directly: home restriction is imposed most often, but colony sentences and “chemistry” with placement in an open-type correctional institution (ИУОТ) also occur—formally not “prison,” but with substantial restrictions.

Mediazona Belarus published a major piece on the anniversary of the leak (5 February 2026) on the consequences for project participants—a useful milestone for a “one year on” framing.

Bottom line

The “Hayun case” in 2026 is not a past spike but an ongoing conveyor: human rights defenders have steadily raised the bar for confirmed numbers in custody from 163 to 183+ in the first months of the year while new detentions are still recorded. Hearings run almost daily; Article 361-4 dominates. A separate layer is the listing of hundreds of convicts in the Interior Ministry’s extremist register, which extends the consequences after sentencing.