EFJ: Belarus: journalist Katsiaryna Andreeva sentenced to 8 years for alleged treason

4 июля в юго-восточном городе Гомеле за закрытыми дверями начался судебный процесс над Андреевой по обвинению в государственной измене. 13 июля Гомельский областной суд приговорил журналиста к восьми годам лишения свободы по обвинению в государственной измене (статья 356 УК Беларуси).

Andree­va was detained in Novem­ber 2020 while livestream­ing a peace­ful protest against Pres­i­dent Alek­san­dr Lukashenko’s con­tin­ued rule. She was serv­ing a two-year prison sen­tence for “orga­niz­ing an ille­gal protest” and was due to be released on Sep­tem­ber 5, 2022. How­ev­er, in Feb­ru­ary 2022, a new crim­i­nal case was launched against her for alleged trea­son charges.

“The Belaru­sian dic­ta­tor and his hench­men do not shy away from any low point,” said the EFJ Pres­i­dent Maja Sev­er. “They have gone so far as to pros­e­cute an already unjust­ly impris­oned jour­nal­ist on new trumped-up charges. This judi­cial harass­ment and increased repres­sion of jour­nal­ists demon­strates the true nature of the dic­ta­to­r­i­al regime in Belarus.”

“This is one of the cru­elest sen­tences against a jour­nal­ist in Belarus,” added the Pres­i­dent of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), Andrei Bas­tunets. “The Belaru­sian lead­er­ship wants to pun­ish Katya for her courage. They are giv­ing her an addi­tion­al eight-year prison sen­tence just two months before her sched­uled release from her pre­vi­ous sen­tence. We demand the annul­ment of the court deci­sion and a review of the tri­al”.

The EFJ calls on the Euro­pean Union, the Coun­cil of Europe and the OSCE to increase diplo­mat­ic pres­sure against the Belaru­sian lead­er­ship and to inten­si­fy sanc­tions against all agents of repres­sion in Belarus.

По данным БАЖ,   в настоящее время в Беларуси за решеткой находится 31 журналист и работник СМИ только за то, что они выполняют свою работу.