“I Swear to Fulfill the Duties of Defense Lawyer Honestly and Faithfully”: Politically Motivated Crackdown on Human Rights Lawyers in Belarus

This report, prepared by Human Rights Watch, Belarusian Association of Human Rights Lawyers, and Right to Defence and published in May 2024, focuses on the lawyers who represented politically prosecuted Belarusians and shed light on the egregious human rights violations in detention – until the authorities came for them, too. The result of this retribution campaign is the “nearly complete takeover of the legal profession in Belarus”: the regime has resorted to criminal prosecution of lawyers, harassment, intimidation, arbitrary revocation of their licenses, and subjection to abuse while in detention. Amendments to the Law on the Bar and Practice of Law, along with public statements of Belarusian officials, eliminate the independence of lawyers and assign them the roles of “statesmen.” The sentences of six lawyers – Maksim Znak, Aliaksandr Danilevich, Vital Brahinets, Anastasiya Lazarenka, Yuliya Yurhilevich, and Aliaksei Barodka – range from six to ten years.