Elena Alexandrovna Zhivitsa

Elena Alexandrovna Zhivitsa

Elena Aleksandrovna Zhivitsa is involved in politically motivated repressions in the Republic of Belarus. Zhivitsa is responsible for handing down numerous politically motivated sentences against journalists, opposition leaders, activists and protesters as a judge at the Oktyabrsky District Court in Minsk. In judicial practice, Elena Zhivitsa considers not only administrative cases, but also criminal ones. As a result of its decisions, fines have already been issued for a total of no less than 45,684 rubles and administrative arrests for a total of no less than 1,291 days, and representatives of civil society of the Republic of Belarus have also been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. In particular, on June 21, 2021, she sentenced a 26-year-old woman to a one-year prison term for a Twitter post in which she changed the words of the national anthem of the Republic of Belarus. In January 2021, Zhivitsa sentenced political prisoner Valery Kolenchyts to three years of restriction of freedom and sent to an open correctional facility. In 2020, Elena Zhivitsa sentenced a number of independent media employees to administrative arrest. Among them, for example, journalists Vadim Zamirovsky (BelaPAN and TUT.by) and Vsevolod Zarubin (BelaPAN and TUT.by), detained on October 17, 2020, received 15 days each, and Daria Spevak (Onliner.by), detained on that same day - 13 days. Artem Maiorov (“Belarusians and the Market”) and Ales Lyubenchuk, detained on October 18, 2020, were also punished with 15 days of arrest. For her crimes she was included in the sanctions lists of the EU, UK, USA and Canada. Thus, Zhivitsa Elena Aleksandrovna is responsible for human rights violations and undermining the principles of the rule of law, as well as for promoting repression against representatives of civil society and the democratic opposition. Her work within the judiciary is focused on maintaining the position of the existing government, rather than on enforcing the law. Zhivitsa’s actions contribute to human rights violations, strengthening the power of Alexander Lukashenko and increasing politically motivated repression in the Republic of Belarus.