Case of Belsat’s Andreyeva and Chultsova brought to court

“Jan­u­ary 12, 2021, Frun­zen­s­ki dis­trict court of Min­sk received the crim­i­nal case against Kat­siary­na Bakhvala­va and Daria Chultso­va, charged with com­mit­ting a crime under arti­cle 342 part 1 of the Crim­i­nal Code, «- post­ed Nadzeya Antonik, assis­tant to the chair­man of Min­sk City Court.

Andreye­va and Chultso­va were detained on Novem­ber 15 while stream­ing from one of the apart­ment build­ings locat­ed on the ‘Square of Changes’. On Novem­ber 20 both jour­nal­ists were charged with orga­niz­ing and prepar­ing activ­i­ties that severe­ly breach pub­lic order. The jour­nal­ists were sent to Zhodz­i­na pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter. The human rights com­mu­ni­ty rec­og­nized them polit­i­cal pris­on­ers.

Accord­ing to Andreye­va’s hus­band Ihar Ilyash, she will be tried in the same hear­ing with Daria Chultso­va. Dari­a’s lawyer has signed a non-dis­clo­sure pledge and does not pro­vide any infor­ma­tion to the pub­lic. Her par­ents are also reluc­tant to com­mu­ni­cate with the media. How­ev­er, Chultso­va’s and Andreye­va’s names go togeth­er in all avail­able papers, prob­a­bly indi­cat­ing that they will be tried at the same hear­ing.

The jour­nal­ists shared the same cell dur­ing the first week in jail, but then they were sent to dif­fer­ent cells and saw each oth­er only once in the cor­ri­dor of Zhodz­i­na jail.