Trial of Nasha Niva editors

12 peo­ple, includ­ing six rel­a­tives, were allowed into the court­room. For­eign diplo­mats also came to court to show their sup­port.
Yahor looked cheer­ful, rather ener­getic. Andrei was more focused and calm.

The crim­i­nal case against Nasha Niva edi­tor-in-chief Yahor Martsi­novich and head of the mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing depart­ment Andrei Skurko was ini­ti­at­ed under Part 2 of Art. 216 of the Crim­i­nal Code (injury not qual­i­fy­ing for theft, com­mit­ted by a group of per­sons in col­lu­sion or major injury). Nasha Niva pris­on­ers are being tried for pay­ing util­i­ty bills at tar­iffs for indi­vid­u­als, not legal enti­ties.

Yahor Martsi­novich and Andrei Skurko com­pen­sat­ed for the dam­age alleged­ly caused to util­i­ty ser­vice providers in full. Minsken­er­go has with­drawn the law­suit and has no claims against them.

The max­i­mum penal­ty for the defen­dants is up to five years of free­dom restric­tion or impris­on­ment.

Yahor Martsi­novich and Andrei Skurko have been rec­og­nized as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. They came under the crack­down on about all inde­pen­dent pub­li­ca­tions in Belarus.