RFE/RL has decried as "illegitimate" a Belarusian court's 18-month prison sentence for one of its journalists for allegedly participating in demonstrations that Aleh Hruzdzilovich says he was covering.
“We strongly condemn this illegitimate persecution of an innocent journalist," RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said in a statement after Hruzdzilovich's sentencing in a Minsk court on March 3. "His only ‘crime’ was reporting the truth to Belarusians who are now denied that truth by their government. We call for Aleh’s immediate release."
The Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors had sought the 18-month term in a maximum security penal colony following mass protests challenging the official results of a 2020 presidential election that handed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term in office.
Hruzdzilovich was also ordered to pay 56,000 rubles ($18,111) in compensation to the Mensktrans city transportation agency, which was a plaintiff in the case. Mensktrans claimed Hurzdzilovich's participation in three unsanctioned rallies cost it revenue.
As the trial kicked off on March 2 at the Soviet district court, judges barred many supporters, friends, and colleagues of Hruzdzilovich from attending the proceedings, even though there were many empty places.
Hruzdzilovich's wife, Maryana, was in attendance at the court but was not allowed to speak to her husband, while a journalist from Russia's Sputnik news agency was allowed to be near the glass cage where Hruzdzilovich sat.
At one demonstration, Hruzdzilovich said he was working as a correspondent with accreditation issued by the Foreign Ministry, while at the other two protests he was working as a correspondent for the Narodnaya volya (People's Will) newspaper.
Hruzdzilovich was arrested in December as Belarusian authorities continued their harsh crackdown on independent media, rights activists, and democratic institutions in the wake of the protests.
The opposition and West say the vote was rigged and that opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya won the election. Thousands of people have been detained by security forces in the crackdown.