MINSK -- A court in Belarus has handed 12-year prison sentences to two journalists from the country's largest independent news website, on charges their supporters and human rights watchdogs call politically motivated.
Judge Valyantsina Zyankevich of the Minsk City Court on March 17 sentenced Maryna Zolatava, the chief editor of Tut.by, and its former director-general, Lyudmila Chekina, as authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka's regime continues its crackdown on free speech and dissent following unrest sparked by a 2020 presidential election the opposition and Western governments say was rigged.
Three other defendants in the case, journalists Volha Loyka, Alena Talkachova, and Katsyaryna Tkachenka, fled the country earlier.
Chekina and Zolatava were found guilty of tax evasion, organizing activities aimed at inciting racial, ethnic, religious, or social hatred, and public calls through the media and the Internet aimed at damaging the national security of Belarus.
Loyka, Talkachova, and Tkachenka faced similar charges.
"The case against Tut.by and the verdict against its staff is cruel revenge for the truth that Tut.by conveyed to the people of Belarus," the Belarusian Association of Journalists said after the verdict was announced.
"The Belarusian Association of Journalists demands annulment of the sentence and the immediate release of Maryna Zolatava, [Lyudmila] Chekina and all media representatives currently behind bars...Journalism is not a crime!"
Belarusian authorities shut down Tut.by in May, 2021 after police searched the media outlet's offices and its employees' homes and arrested more than a dozen of the website's staff.
Belarusian authorities have stepped up their repression of journalists and bloggers after mass protests followed August 2020 presidential election, which the nation's authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka claims he won.
Opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhouskaya, who is thought to have won the election and had to leave the country fearing for the safety of her family, said her "heart is with" the two women.
"It's another attempt to kill honest journalism in Belarus, but I know that the truth will win," she said in a tweet.
Outrage over what was seen by both the opposition forces and the general public as a rigged vote to hand Lukashenka a sixth term in office brought tens of thousands onto the streets to protest the outcome.
Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands, including dozens of representatives of democratic institutions and journalists who covered the rallies, and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.
The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka, 68, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have imposed sanctions on him and senior Belarusian officials in response to the “falsification” of the vote and the postelection crackdown.