MINSK -- The trial of Maryna Zolatava, chief editor of Tut.by, once the largest independent online media outlet in Belarus, and its former director-general, Lyudmila Chekina, has begun on charges their supporters and human rights watchdogs call politically motivated.
Judge Valyantsina Zyankevich of the Minsk City Court started the trial behind closed doors on January 9. Three other defendants in the case -- journalists Volha Loyka, Alena Talkachova, and Katsyaryna Tkachenka -- are being tried in absentia, as they fled the country earlier.
Chekina and Zolatava are charged with tax evasion, organizing activities aimed at inciting racial, ethnic, religious, or social hatred, and public calls through the media and Internet aimed at damaging the national security of Belarus.
Loyka, Talkachova, and Tkachenka face similar charges.
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 journalists.
Belarusian authorities have stepped up their repression of journalists and bloggers after mass protests followed the August 2020 presidential election, which the nation's authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka claims he won.
Outrage over what was seen by both opposition forces and the general public as a rigged vote that handed 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 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 slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and the postelection crackdown.