The experts say courts, police, security services, prosecutors, and prison authorities work together to silence real or perceived government critics.

United Nations experts have found that Belarusian state institutions have worked together to repress government critics through arrests, imprisonment, and surveillance since 2020.

In a report to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council this week, the independent experts said courts, police, security services, prosecutors, and prison authorities had worked together to silence real or perceived opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994.

The experts said they found “systematic” violations of international human rights obligations from arrest through to detention, conviction, and post-release supervision.

They cited arbitrary arrests, torture, denial of legal safeguards, closed trials, and the continued harassment of former detainees.

“The patterns of violations described in this paper continue to the present day,” the report said.

It added that the judiciary had played a key role by legitimising abuses and denying victims effective remedies.

According to the report, Belarus has previously rejected UN criticism of its human rights record and did not cooperate with the experts, who said requests to visit the country and engage with authorities went unanswered.

The experts said Belarus violated multiple international treaties. They reiterated earlier findings that some abuses committed since May 2020 could amount to crimes against humanity, including persecution and imprisonment.

The findings come three years after mass protests erupted following the August 2020 presidential elections, which saw Lukashenko win once again. The opposition and Western governments condemned his electoral success, calling the vote rigged.

In the crackdown on protesters, thousands of people were arrested, and rights groups continue to document political prisoners in the country.

While Lukashenko denies holding political prisoners, describing them as “bandits”, former political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ales Bialiatski told the Reuters news agency last month that despite recent prisoner releases secured through United States engagement with Minsk, “the machinery of repression keeps running.”

On Tuesday, US envoy John Coale arrived in Minsk for his first talks in six months with Lukashenko to negotiate the release of political prisoners.

According to the Belarusian human rights group Viasna, more than 900 political prisoners are still being held in Belarus.