Torture and ill-treatment among former Belarusian political prisoners after 2020

Political imprisonment is associated with long-term psychological harm, but evidence from Eastern and Central Europe, particularly Belarus, remains limited. After the 2020 post-election crackdown, many former Belarusian political prisoners live in emigration, yet their experiences of torture and ill-treatment have not been systematically documented.

We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 77 former Belarusian political prisoners who had been criminally prosecuted on political grounds, detained or imprisoned, and subsequently emigrated. The online questionnaire covered detention history, physical and psychological violence and ill-treatment, suicidality in custody, subjective stressors, and perceived purposes of violence. Six semi-structured interviews were used to contextualise and illustrate the quantitative findings.

The assessments took place a median of 11 months after emigration. Violence at arrest was reported by 85.7% of respondents. During imprisonment, with a median duration of 30 months, physical torture or ill-treatment was reported by 88.3% and psychological torture or ill-treatment by 98.6%; 54.8% endorsed ten or more psychological categories. Punitive isolation was reported by 52.1%, suicidal thoughts in custody by 30.1%, self-harm by 12.3%, and suicide attempts by four respondents. Loneliness and separation from relatives were rated as the most severe stressor. Humiliation of the person (81.9%) and submission or suppression of the person (80.6%) were the most common perceived purposes of violence.

Respondents described a systematic pattern of physical, psychological, and degrading abuse from arrest through imprisonment and into post-release migration. Psychological and degrading forms of ill-treatment were central and converged with the political framing of detention. Findings support revised Istanbul Protocol-based assessment, documentation, and rehabilitation, with imprisonment, release under continuing risk, and forced migration treated as a single exposure trajectory.