August 2026 under dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka ran on two parallel tracks: anniversary figures for six years of repression, and the daily conveyor — new political prisoners, the EHU case, fresh “extremist” lists. Pardons and diplomatic releases did not change the core fact: the list behind bars keeps updating almost every week.
9 August: six years — in Viasna’s report
Marking six years since the 2020 protests, the Viasna Human Rights Centre published a summary covered by Zerkalo and Nasha Niva. Since 2020 it has recorded more than 100,000 politically motivated persecution facts: detentions, searches, interrogations, sentences, pressure on relatives.
4,602 people have been recognised as political prisoners — up 538 in a year. On 9 August at least 879 remained behind bars. At least 10,016 faced politically motivated criminal prosecution; at least 8,670 were convicted, including in absentia. In the year after 9 August 2025 alone, rights defenders know of ≥750 new political sentences.
Women separately: 2,089 convicted in political criminal cases since the crackdown began; 120 were in custody at the time of the report. A special-risk group covers 178 people (illness, large families, incommunicado detention, held past sentence end, forced psychiatry). Since 2024, 886 have been pardoned; 205 of them were forcibly expelled from Belarus after release.
At least nine people have died in custody: Andrei Podniebienny, Aliaksandr Kulinich, Ihar Lednik, Vadzim Khrasko, Ales Pushkin, Mikalai Klimovich, Vitold Ashurak, Dzmitry Shlethauer and Valiantsin Shterminer. Viasna knows of no criminal case against security officers for torture or deaths linked to political persecution.
Late August: another +16 political prisoners
The conveyor did not pause after the anniversary. On 27 August rights defenders recognised 16 more people as political prisoners — persecution tied to “extremist formations” and freedom of expression. By then about 889 political prisoners were behind bars, reported Belsat and Salidarnasts. The real number is higher: some cases never reach defenders.
The EHU case: pressure on students and families
After the Supreme Court labelled the European Humanities University an “extremist organisation,” security forces opened a campaign against students, alumni and relatives. By 17 August Viasna had identified at least 175 people affected — covered by Zerkalo. In early September Amnesty International warned that the campaign hits the right to education and academic freedom and already reaches families inside Belarus.
“Extremist” people and materials lists
In summer 2026 at least 174 people were added to the list of those “involved in extremist activity”: 95 in June, 66 in July and at least 13 more in August — per Viasna via Salidarnasts. Lawyer Pavel Sapelko: there are no grounds to talk about easing repression — amid the Hayun case, EHU-linked persecution and “hatred”/defamation articles. In parallel, the Information Ministry expanded the “extremist materials” list — from Telegram channels to an LSP song.
Release diplomacy — and the shadow of new arrests
In late August U.S. special envoy John Coale spoke of hoping for more releases in September and put previous releases in the hundreds. For Lukashenka’s regime that is a convenient backdrop: while talks continue, the machinery of searches, in-absentia trials and Friday list updates stays on. Pardons without stopping repression are not a thaw — they are fear management.
August in one line
August 2026 showed the same architecture of Belarusian repression: scale in reports, names in weekly statements, families as hostages, the “extremism” label as a universal tool. Viasna’s figures are a lower bound. While officers face no accountability for torture and deaths, and lists grow faster than diplomatic photo ops, human rights in Belarus remain a territory closed to summer — and to freedom.