The Belarusian government is threatening three HAM radio operators with the death penalty, \u00a0detained at least seven people, and has accused them of \u201cintercepting state secrets,\u201d according to Belarusian state media, independent media outside of Belarus, and the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna. The arrests are an extreme attack on what is most often a wholesome hobby that has a history of being vilified by authoritarian governments in part because the technology is quite censorship resistant.The detentions were announced last week on Belarusian state TV, which claimed the men were part of a network of more than 50 people participating in the amateur radio hobby and have been accused of both \u201cespionage\u201d and \u201ctreason.\u201d Authorities there said they seized more than 500 pieces of radio equipment. The men were accused on state TV of using radio to spy on the movement of government planes, though no actual evidence of this has been produced.State TV claimed they were associated with the Belarusian Federation of Radioamateurs and Radiosportsmen (BFRR), a long-running amateur radio club and nonprofit that holds amateur radio competitions, meetups, trainings, and forums. WhatsApp and email requests to the BFRR from 404 Media were not returned.\u00a0On Reddit, Siarhei Besarab, a Belarusian HAM radio operator, posted a plea for support from others in the hobby: \u201cMAYDAY from Belarus: Licensed operators facing death penalty.\u201d\u201cI am writing this because my local community is being systematically liquidated in what I can only describe as a targeted intellectual genocide,\u201d Besarab wrote. \u201cThey have detained over 50 licensed people, including callsigns EW1ABT, EW1AEH, and EW1ACE. These men were paraded on state television like war criminals and were coerced to publicly repent for the “crime” of technical curiosity. Propagandists presented the Belarusian Federation of Radioamateurs and Radiosportsmen (BFRR) as a front for a \u2018massive spy network.\u2019\u201d\u201cState propaganda unironically claims these men were \u2018pumping state secrets out of the air\u2019 using nothing more than basic $25 Baofeng handhelds and consumer-grade SDR dongles,\u201d he added. \u201cAny operator knows that hardware like this is physically incapable of cracking the modern AES-256 digital encryption used by government security forces. It is a technical fraud, yet they are being charged with High Treason and Espionage. The punishment in Belarus for these charges is life in prison or the death penalty.\u201dThe Belarusian human rights group Viasna and its associated Telegram channel confirmed the detention and said that it spoke to a cellmate of Andrei Repetsi, who said that Repetsi was unable to talk about his case in jail: \u201cThe case is secret, so Andrei never told the essence of the case in the cell. He joked that his personal file was marked \u2018Top secret. Burn before reading,\u2019\u201d Viasna wrote.\u00a0Most HAMs operate amateur radios for fun, as part of competitions, or to keep in touch with other HAMs around the world. But the hobby has a long history of being attacked by governments in part because it is resistant to censorship. Amateur radio often works even if a natural disaster or political action takes down internet, cell, and phone services, so it is popular among people interested in search and rescue and doomsday prepping. Amateur radio has been used to share information out of Cuba, for example, and in 2021 the Cuban government jammed HAM radio frequencies during anti-government protests there.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"