Lead. Activists released from Belarus—and those forcibly expelled—have put Article 411 of the Criminal Code (“malicious disobedience” toward a penitentiary administration) in the public spotlight. By their account, the provision turns disciplinary incidents into grounds for new prison terms and creates a risk of de facto open-ended extension of detention. Mandate holders of the UN have in parallel raised the same article in official communications to the Belarusian authorities; the human rights center Viasna links the practice to breaches of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Vilnius, 22 December 2025: what former inmates said

According to Pozirk, former detainees who were released and expelled from the country held a press conference in Vilnius. Uladzimir Labkovich, coordinator of the “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” campaign, described each facility as having “its own specialities in how pressure is applied” and singled out Prison No. 8 in Zhodzina, where, he said, charges under Article 411 are widely used—a norm that “in effect allows sentences to be lengthened.”

Labkovich said he was interrogated under criminal articles other than those in his original verdict, and that in Zhodzina prison he was reportedly told outright that “they would arrange Article 411” for him by a certain date. As quoted in the piece: “That’s why even at the moment I was being released, until the very last moment I didn’t know I was getting out.”

Maksim Senik, a trade union member at “Hrodna Azot,” explained how add-on terms work (up to one or two extra years depending on the “gravity” of the original sentence) and stressed that convictions under this head can be repeated—“right to the grave,” in the tone of the report.

What UN mechanisms have already done

Regardless of the Vilnius event, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and special rapporteurs addressed Article 411 in official communications to the Belarusian government.

The document states that Article 411 “in practice allows for indefinite deprivation of liberty” because the same person can be convicted repeatedly (including while still serving the original term or immediately after it). It names Siarhei Dziatsuk, Mikalai Dziadok, Dzmitry Kazlou, and Zmitser Dashkevich; it says that after the 2020 protests at least 66 people recognized by rights defenders as political prisoners received additional terms under this article. The experts express grave concern about the “broad and vague” wording and link abuse of disciplinary sanctions (disciplinary cells, PKT) to Belarus’s obligations under the ICCPR and the Convention against Torture.

Figures and Viasna’s legal position

According to Viasna / Radio Svaboda, since 2020 no fewer than 71 political prisoners have been sentenced to a new term under Article 411. The group’s lawyers tie this to violations of ICCPR Articles 7, 9 and 14. The overview lists typical grounds cited in verdicts: petty breaches of internal rules, refusal of certain kinds of work, and the like; it notes that the same conduct is first treated as a disciplinary breach and later as a criminal offence under Article 411.

Context in 2026

UN experts’ statements on the Belarusian prison system as a whole continued into 2026—for example in summaries such as Euronews—alongside wider discussion of disciplinary isolation and pressure on inmates.