The Minsk City Court on March 22 sentenced former RFE/RL correspondent Ihar Karney to three years in prison on a charge of taking part in an extremist group. Official media said Karney was sentenced for cooperating with the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which was shut down in August 2022 and declared "extremist" in February 2023. Belarus's independent media has been a casualty of an ongoing crackdown on civil society that started after the official results of a disputed August 2020 presidential election awarded authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term in office. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.
