Ihar Alyaksandravich Losik ( be, Ігар Аляксандравіч Лосік, russian: Игорь Александрович Лосик, born 20 May 1992) is a

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

ian blogger and consultant of the Belarusian section of

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

. Since June 25, 2020 he has been held in prison by Belarusian authorities.

Viasna Human Rights Centre The Viasna Human Rights Centre ( be, Праваабарончы цэнтр «Вясна», Pravaabarončy centr «Viasna») is a human rights organization based in Minsk, Belarus. The organization aims to provide financial and legal assistance to ...

and

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

recognize him as a political prisoner.

Life

Losik graduated from Baranavichy State University in 2015. By specialty he is a philologist, a teacher of a foreign language. However, he did not work by profession. In 2015-2016 he received the Vaclav Havel scholarship. Since 2018, he is the father of a daughter, named Paulina. In 2011, Losik became an administrator of the Revolution through Social Networks movement. It was him who had the idea of peaceful, silent protests. After the first successful protests,

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

officers became interested in him. Losik has ceased his participation in the administration of this protest movement. Since February 2013, he has been running a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account with the name "RB epublic of Belarusof the Brain". Since October 2014, as a social media specialist, he has published articles on

. From May 15, 2016, he began to conduct a channel with the name of "RB epublic of Belarusof the Brain" on Telegram.

Arrest in 2020

On June 25, 2020, in a house in Baranavichy, after an hour-long search, law enforcement agencies detained Ihar Losik. During the search, a laptop, a computer and a telephone were seized. In the evening of the same day, it became known that a criminal case was opened against the blogger under Article 342 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them). On 9 July, 2021, godparenthood for the political prisoner was taken by

Manuel Sarrazin Manuel Ferdinand Theodor Sarrazin (born 6 February 1982) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Hamburg from 2008 to 2021. Since 2022, he has been serving as Special Representat ...

Member of the German Bundestag Member of the German Parliament (german: Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages) is the official name given to a deputy in the German Bundestag. ''Member of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the Reichs ...

. On December 15, 2020, Losik announced to start a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

which lasted until January 21, 2021. He explained this decision by expressing that he was amazed by a wave of solidarity and pleas of hundreds and hundreds of Belarusians to stop. In March 2021, a new charge was brought against Losik. When he was informed of the new accusation, he attempted to cut his hands in front of the investigator and the lawyer. He also announced to go on a ‘dry’ hunger strike. On December 14, 2021, Losik was charged under "organization of mass riots" and "incitement to social hatred" and sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security prison in

Gomel Gomel (russian: Гомель, ) or Homiel ( be, Гомель, ) is the administrative centre of Gomel Region and the second-largest city in Belarus with 526,872 inhabitants (2015 census). Etymology There are at least six narratives of the ori ...

. Along with him,

Mikola Statkevich Mikola Viktaravich Statkevich ( be, Мікола Віктаравіч Статкевіч, russian: Николай Викторович Статкевич, translit=Nikolai Viktorovych Statkevich; born 12 August 1956) is a Belarusian politicia ...

Sergei Tikhanovsky Sergei Leonidovich Tikhanovsky (russian: Серге́й Леони́дович Тихано́вский) or Siarhiej Leanidavič Cichanoŭski ( be, Сярге́й Леані́давіч Ціхано́ўскі; born 18 August 1978) is a Belarusi ...

and three other political prisoners were also sentenced.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Losik, Ihar 1992 births Living people Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Belarus Belarusian bloggers Belarusian democracy activists Belarusian prisoners and detainees Hunger strikers People from Baranavichy Political prisoners according to Viasna Human Rights Centre Prisoners and detainees of Belarus Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty people