Activists say police in Belarus beat LGBTQ+ people while arresting and charging them

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Rights activists in harshly repressive Belarus say police recently subjected at least 20 LGBTQ+ people to questioning, during which some were beaten and were charged with crimes.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Belarus in 1994, but animosity toward sexual minorities is high. Belarus this year passed a law declaring depictions of homosexual life to be pornography, with a penalty of up to four years in prison.

Two of those rounded up by police have been charged with distributing pornography and eight with hooliganism, according to the TG House Belarus transgender rights group.

“Arrests that looked more like attacks took place at universities, cafes, homes and even at public transport stops,” group coordinator Alisa Sarmant said Friday.

Pavel Sapelka, a spokesman for the Viasna human rights group, told The Associated Press that a transgender person from Russia was arrested in September.

Russia, which has close relations with Belarus and stations troops and tactical nulcear weapons here, has increasingly cracked down on sexual minorities, including banning what it calls the “international LGBTQ+ movement” as extremist.

Belarus has seen severe crackdowns on opposition groups and figures since large protests arose nationwide in the wake of disputed election results that gave President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the country and opposition leaders are either in exile or in prison.

“The wave of repression has reached this vulnerable category of citizens. … Society in Belarus is being pumped up with hatred toward these people,” Sapelko said.