Convicted journalist Ihar Losik summoned to Baranavichy court

Losiks’ property was sequestered towards debt repayment

In addi­tion to huge sen­tences, defen­dants in the “Tsikhanous­ki case” were ruled to pay 22 mil­lion rubles of dam­ages, “to com­pen­sate the long hours the Inte­ri­or Min­istry staff had to work in the post-elec­tion peri­od.” In the mid­dle of July 2022, bailiffs came to Ihar’s home in Baranavichy to sequester the prop­er­ty towards repay­ment of his debt to the state. To redeem the prop­er­ty con­fis­cat­ed by the state, Ihar Losik had to obtain a per­mit. Brest Depart­ment of Cor­rec­tions did not respond to the polit­i­cal prisoner’s peti­tion, and his prop­er­ty was put up for auc­tion.

Now Ihar is sum­moned to court in per­son.

Losiks’ daughter is unlikely to see her father over bureaucratic obstacles

In March, Ihar Losik’s par­ents are sup­posed to see him on a long-term vis­it. The polit­i­cal pris­on­er asked to bring his 4‑year-old daugh­ter Paulin­ka. The girl was left with­out both par­ents fol­low­ing their arrest. But bureau­crat­ic obsta­cles are like­ly to pre­vent Paulin­ka from com­ing – under the law, a child can vis­it a par­ent in a pen­i­ten­tiary only when accom­pa­nied by anoth­er par­ent or legal guardian.

The girl’s moth­er Daria Losik is behind bars. On 19 Jan­u­ary 2022, Brest Region­al Court sen­tenced her to two years in jail. Daria’s par­ents took cus­tody of their grand­daugh­ter. They can’t vis­it Ihar since only imme­di­ate fam­i­ly is allowed to do so. Ihar’s par­ents can­not take Paulin­ka with them because they are not for­mal­ly her guardians.

Ihar and Daria exchanged first letters

Fol­low­ing the con­vic­tion of Daria Losik, the spous­es were allowed to cor­re­spond with each oth­er. Ihar wrote over 20 let­ters to his wife, but she only received one. Ihar was also hand­ed just one response from her.