Journalist Volha Radzivonava sentenced to 4 years in prison

On the morn­ing of Decem­ber 10, the judge of the Min­sk City Court, Vera Halauko­va, sen­tenced jour­nal­ist Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va to four years of impris­on­ment. The defen­dant was charged with four arti­cles of crim­i­nal defama­tion.

Jour­nal­ist Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va. Pho­to: Volha’s Face­book page

Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va was accused of libel­ing and insult­ing the pres­i­dent of Belarus, dis­cred­it­ing the coun­try, and incit­ing social enmi­ty or dis­cord.

The jour­nal­ist’s tri­al began on Novem­ber 16 in the Min­sk City Court. The next hear­ing was sched­uled for Novem­ber 27. This morn­ing, Judge Vera Halauko­va announced the guilty ver­dict.

The jour­nal­ist Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va was arrest­ed on March 7, 2024. It is known that dur­ing her deten­tion in Remand Cen­ter No. 1, she was sent for psy­chi­atric exam­i­na­tion.

Vol­ha Radzivonava’s sick moth­er, who is over 80 years old, needs con­stant care.

Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va worked as a free­lancer for Belaru­sian and for­eign media until 2020.

On Octo­ber 30, 2024, the human rights com­mu­ni­ty rec­og­nized the jour­nal­ist as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.