Prisoners

Valeryia Kastsiuhova

Valeryia Kastsiuhova is a political scientist, analyst, founder and editor of the site of the expert community "Nashe Mneniye" (“Our Opinion"), editor and author of the "Belarusian Yearbook" and head of a group of monitoring experts "Belarus in Focus".

Kastsiuhova was detained on June 30, 2021 after a search of her home. The search was carried out by KGB officers. She was placed in a pre-trial detention center and later transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1.

She is accused of calls to action against national security and of a conspiracy to seize state power. She faces up to 12 years in prison. A similar charge was brought up against the political expert Tatsiana Kouzina, as well as against the member of the Coordination Council Presidium Maria Kalesnikava, the Pushkin scholar Aliaksandr Fiaduta, and the lawyer Yury Ziankovich.
Valeryia Kastsiuhova’s political position was rather moderate, as she alw