A outstanding journalist in Belarus was sentenced Wednesday to 6 years in jail, the newest step in a years-long crackdown on opposition figures, impartial journalists and human rights activists.
On trial within the metropolis of Grodno in western Belarus, Pavel Mazheika, 45, was discovered responsible of “complicity in extremist activity” for overlaying the actions of the political opposition.
He was accused of working for news retailers together with Belsat TV, which broadcasts in Belarusian from its base in neighboring Poland. The Belarusian authorities have labeled Belsat as “extremist.”
Lawyer Yuliya Yurhilevich additionally was sentenced to 6 years in jail after she was accused of giving Mazheika data on Belarus’ political prisoners, notably on dissident artist Ales Pushkin who died in a Belarusian jail earlier this month.
Yurhilevich, 42, who practiced regulation for nearly 18 years and defended human rights activists, was stripped of her license in February 2022.
“This is not a trial, but a theater of the absurd – a journalist and a lawyer are being tried for disseminating information,” Mazheika mentioned throughout the trial.
Mazheika is a well known determine in Belarus. In 2002, he was sentenced to 2 years in jail for “slandering the president,” earlier than turning into press secretary for presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich in 2006.
Mazheika has since labored for main impartial news retailers in each Belarus and Poland, internet hosting a number of reveals and performing as government director for Belsat TV.
The journalist has spent 11 months behind bars since his arrest in August 2022. Earlier, Mazheika mentioned that in his detention he was severely overwhelmed by regulation enforcement officers, and accused them of attempting to gouge out his eye.
Belarusian opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is amongst those that have condemned Mazheika’s and Yurhilevich’s sentencing.
“Today, brave journalist Pavel Mazheika and lawyer Yulia Yurhilevich were sentenced to six years in prison in another mockery of justice in Belarus,” she mentioned. “This is a blatant attack on those who dare to speak the truth. Journalists and lawyers are persecuted for carrying out their profession.”
Journalists and activists in Belarus have confronted large-scale repression for the reason that that handed a sixth time period to President Alexander Lukashenko. Following the election, which was rejected as fraudulent by the opposition and the West, Belarus was swept by , a few of which drew greater than 100,000 folks.
Authorities responded with a brutal crackdown. More than 35,000 folks have been arrested, hundreds have been overwhelmed by police whereas in custody, and dozens of nongovernmental organizations and impartial media retailers have been shut down.
Some 1,481 acknowledged political prisoners are in Belarus, in keeping with the Viasna human rights heart.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
