human rights defender
Larysa Shchyrakova
Actions and Campaigns
Organization affiliation
- Belsat TV
HRD's year of birth
1973
HRD's Gender
Woman
Type of HRD
- Journalist/Blogger
HRD's thematic area of engagement
- Civil and political rights
HRD's geographical origin
Urban
Current Status
Pardoned
HRD's bio and work
Shchyrakova worked as a freelance journalist from 2007 until February 2022, when she announced that she was leaving journalism amid continued government harassment and detentions. Since leaving journalism, Shchyrakova has worked as a photographer documenting Belarusian cultural practices, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an advocacy and trade group operating from exile.
Detained since
Dec 6, 2022
Date of release
Sep 11, 2025
Charge(s)
- Extremism
- Other
Sentence
3 years and 6 months
Latitude: 52.45
Longitude: 30.97
Geolocation of detention
Country or area of detention
Region of detention
- Europe: Eastern Europe
Location of detention - City/Town
Homieĺ
Location of detention - Facility
Penal colony No. 4. 246035, Homieĺ, vulica Antoshkina 4
Recent case update / evolution
On September 11, 2025, it was revealed that 52 prisoners of the Belarusian regime had been forcibly transferred to Lithuania. Larysa Shchyrakova was among those released.
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