Ihar Alyaksandravich Losik (, , born 20 May 1992) is a

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian blogger and consultant of the Belarusian section of

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

. Since June 25, 2020 he has been held in prison by Belarusian authorities.

Viasna Human Rights Centre The Viasna Human Rights Centre () is a human rights in Belarus, human rights organization based in Minsk, Belarus. The organization aims to provide financial and legal assistance to political prisoners and their families, and was founded in 1996 ...

and

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

recognize him as a political prisoner.

Life

Losik graduated from Baranavichy State University in 2015. By specialty he is a philologist, a teacher of a foreign language. However, he did not work by profession. In 2015-2016 he received the Vaclav Havel scholarship. Since 2018, he is the father of a daughter, named Paulina. In 2011, Losik became an administrator of the Revolution through Social Networks movement. It was him who had the idea of peaceful, silent protests. After the first successful protests,

State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus The State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus (KGB RB) is the national intelligence agency, and secret police force of Belarus. Along with its counterparts in Transnistria and South Ossetia, it kept the unreformed name after declari ...

officers became interested in him. Losik has ceased his participation in the administration of this protest movement. Since February 2013, he has been running a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account with the name "RB epublic of Belarusof the Brain". Since October 2014, as a social media specialist, he has published articles on

. From May 15, 2016, he began to conduct a channel with the name of "RB epublic of Belarusof the Brain" on Telegram.

Arrest in 2020

On June 25, 2020, in a house in Baranavichy, after an hour-long search, law enforcement agencies detained Ihar Losik. During the search, a laptop, a computer and a telephone were seized. In the evening of the same day, it became known that a criminal case was opened against the blogger under Article 342 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them). On 9 July 2021, godparenthood for the political prisoner was taken by

Manuel Sarrazin Manuel Ferdinand Theodor Sarrazin (born 6 February 1982) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Hamburg from 2008 to 2021. Since 2022, he has been serving as Special Representati ...

Member of the German Bundestag Member of the German Parliament () is the official name given to a deputy in the Bundestag, German Bundestag. ''Member of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the Reichstag building in Berlin. In G ...

. On December 15, 2020, Losik announced to start a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...

which lasted until January 21, 2021. He explained this decision by expressing that he was amazed by a wave of solidarity and pleas of hundreds and hundreds of Belarusians to stop. In March 2021, a new charge was brought against Losik. When he was informed of the new accusation, he attempted to cut his hands in front of the investigator and the lawyer. He also announced to go on a ‘dry’ hunger strike. On December 14, 2021, Losik was charged under "organization of mass riots" and "incitement to social hatred" and sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security prison in

Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...

. Along with him,

Mikola Statkevich Mikola Viktaravich Statkevich (, ; born 12 August 1956 – disappeared 9 February 2023) is a Belarusian lieutenant colonel, politician, and opposition leader who was a presidential candidate at the 2010 Belarusian presidential election. Sin ...

Sergei Tikhanovsky Sergei Leonidovich Tikhanovsky (born 18 August 1978) is a Belarusian YouTuber, Vlog, video blogger, Belarusian opposition, opposition leader and Democracy promotion, pro-democracy activist. He is primarily known for his activism against the gov ...

and three other political prisoners were also sentenced. In March 2023, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of the Pahonia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Losik, Ihar 1992 births Living people Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Belarus Belarusian bloggers Belarusian democracy activists Belarusian prisoners and detainees Belarusian hunger strikers People from Baranavichy Political prisoners according to Viasna Human Rights Centre Prisoners and detainees of Belarus Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty people