Journalist who covered protests after the 2020 elections to be tried in Pinsk

Yauhen Nikalayevich’s tri­al is set for Sep­tem­ber 26. Back in 2020, he worked for the region­al pub­li­ca­tion Media-Polesye and cov­ered the protests that broke out in Pin­sk after the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. The jour­nal­ist was then severe­ly beat­en dur­ing an arrest.

Yauhen Nikalayevich. Pho­to: Media-Polesye

The Court of Pin­sk City and Pin­sk Dis­trict is still hear­ing cas­es from August 2020 on charges of “gross vio­la­tion of pub­lic order.” Yauhen Nikalayevich, a jour­nal­ist, is among those who will be tried soon.

Four years ago, he was a video­g­ra­ph­er for the region­al pub­li­ca­tion Media-Polesye. His job was to cov­er the protests in the city after the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion.

The pho­to is evi­dence that Yauhen Nikalayevich was film­ing, but was not part of the action.

Accord­ing to human rights activists, Yauhen Nikalayevich is due to go on tri­al on 26 Sep­tem­ber. The tri­al will be presided over by Judge Yauhe­nia Mel­nik.

Yauhen Nikalayevich was arrest­ed while on duty on 10 August 2020. His cell­mates in the tem­po­rary deten­tion cen­tre report­ed that he showed signs of hav­ing been beat­en. He served 10 days of deten­tion in Novem­ber 2020 and he left Belarus. Abroad, he was work­ing in a dif­fer­ent field.

In ear­ly 2024, Yauhen returned to Belarus, but the cir­cum­stances of his crim­i­nal deten­tion are unknown.