Belarusian journalist gets 6 years for covering anti-Lukashenko dissidents

A outstanding journalist in Belarus was sentenced Wednesday to 6 years in jail, the newest step in a years-long crackdown on opposition figures, impartial journalists and human rights activists.

On trial within the metropolis of Grodno in western Belarus, Pavel Mazheika, 45, was discovered responsible of “complicity in extremist exercise” for overlaying the actions of the political opposition.

He was accused of working for information retailers together with Belsat TV, which broadcasts in Belarusian from its base in neighboring Poland. The Belarusian authorities have labeled Belsat as “extremist.”

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Lawyer Yuliya Yurhilevich additionally was sentenced to 6 years in jail after she was accused of giving Mazheika info on Belarus’ political prisoners, notably on dissident artist Ales Pushkin who died in a Belarusian jail earlier this month.

Yurhilevich, 42, who practiced regulation for nearly 18 years and defended human rights activists, was stripped of her license in February 2022.

“This isn’t a trial, however a theater of the absurd – a journalist and a lawyer are being tried for disseminating info,” Mazheika stated in the course of the trial.

Pavel Mazheika speaks to The Related Press, Zhlobin, Belarus, Jan. 22, 2003. (AP Picture, File)

Mazheika is a well known determine in Belarus. In 2002, he was sentenced to 2 years in jail for “slandering the president,” earlier than turning into press secretary for presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich in 2006.

Mazheika has since labored for main impartial information retailers in each Belarus and Poland, internet hosting a number of reveals and appearing as govt director for Belsat TV.

The journalist has spent 11 months behind bars since his arrest in August 2022. Earlier, Mazheika stated that in his detention he was severely overwhelmed by law enforcement officers, and accused them of making an attempt to gouge out his eye.

Belarusian opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is amongst those that have condemned Mazheika’s and Yurhilevich’s sentencing.

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“As we speak, courageous journalist Pavel Mazheika and lawyer Yulia Yurhilevich have been sentenced to 6 years in jail in one other mockery of justice in Belarus,” she stated. “This can be a blatant assault on those that dare to talk the reality. Journalists and legal professionals are persecuted for finishing up their occupation.”

Journalists and activists in Belarus have confronted large-scale repression for the reason that August 2020 vote that handed a sixth time period to President Alexander Lukashenko. Following the election, which was rejected as fraudulent by the opposition and the West, Belarus was swept by large protests, a few of which drew greater than 100,000 folks.

Authorities responded with a brutal crackdown. Greater than 35,000 folks have been arrested, hundreds have been overwhelmed by police whereas in custody, and dozens of nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets have been shut down.

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Some 1,481 acknowledged political prisoners are at the moment behind bars in Belarus, in keeping with the Viasna human rights heart.