Belarusian authorities extend crackdown to lawyers representing political activists.

Belarus has been cracking down on dissent for nearly three years, filling the country's penal colonies with thousands of political prisoners. The government has also gotten rid of many independent lawyers, making it increasingly difficult for detainees to mount any kind of legal defense. More than 500 of the lawyers have been stripped of their law licenses and quit the profession since 2020, and many of them have moved abroad after facing reprisals at home. Belarus has effectively run out of independent lawyers to represent the many political prisoners in the country of 9.5 million people, a situation that is "catastrophic."