Yahor Martsinovich and Andrei Skurko sentenced to 2.5 years in prison

Our col­leagues, who are rec­og­nized as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, have been found guilty of absurd charges of «caus­ing injury not qual­i­fy­ing for theft, com­mit­ted by a group of per­sons in col­lu­sion or major injury.» Nasha Niva pris­on­ers were tried for pay­ing util­i­ty bills at tar­iffs for indi­vid­u­als, not legal enti­ties.

In their last state­ment, the defen­dants spoke about their rel­a­tives, for whom their impris­on­ment was a big blow, and expressed words of sup­port to those who stood in sol­i­dar­i­ty.

Yahor Martsi­novich and Andrei Skurko have been rec­og­nized as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. They came under the crack­down for their media work.

Ini­tial­ly, the injury was esti­mat­ed at 3,500 Belaru­sian rubles (about $1050). Lat­er the amount increased to 10,000 Belaru­sian rubles ($3000). Jour­nal­ists had com­pen­sat­ed for injuries before the tri­al start­ed, so Min­skvo­dakanal and Minsken­er­ga with­drew their law­suits.