MINSK. March 4 (Interfax) - The first criminal case has been opened in Belarus on counts of Belarusian genocide denial, the Belarusian Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
"Officers of the Main Department for Countering Organized Crime have detained a 54-year-old Minsk resident with armed support provided by the Interior Ministry Forces' SOBR personnel," the ministry said.
According to the ministry, the man set up and administered a social network group since 2020 to post protest materials.
Materials published by the defendant "denied Belarusian genocide by the German Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War, rehabilitated Nazism, and ascribed crimes committed by the occupiers to Soviet citizens," investigators said.
Criminal cases were opened on counts of Belarusian genocide denial, preparation for actions flagrantly breaching public order, active participation in such actions, insults to the president, and rehabilitation of Nazism. "This is the first person held responsible for genocide denial," the ministry said.
The law on Belarusian Genocide and amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, allowing for posthumous trials of Nazi criminals, were adopted in Belarus in 2022-2023.
The law envisages the legal recognition of Belarusian genocide by Nazi criminals and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period (before 1951). All Soviet citizens residing in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic in that period are defined as the Belarusian people. The law criminalizes public denial of Belarusian genocide.
A case was opened in Belarus in 2021 on counts of Belarusian genocide during the Great Patriotic War. According to Belarusian Prosecutor General Andrei Shved, the case aimed to recognize Belarus as a genocide victim and prevent attempts to devalue historical facts.
According to the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office, over 400 places of forced detention of civilians, 260 death camps and 170 ghettos, where at least 1.5 million people were exterminated, operated in the Belarusian territory during the Great Patriotic War. By current estimates, the overall Belarusian civilian casualties neared 3 million, or about a third of the entire population, over the years of Nazi occupation.