Media reports say a Belarusian court has sentenced a Ukrainian reporter to more than eight years in prison after convicting him of espionage.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Belarus, Ihor Kizim, was quoted by the Belarusian news site Tut.by and Reuters as saying that the trial of Pavlo Sharoyko took place behind closed doors, but he didn’t specify when the Supreme Court issued his sentence.
Kizim also said he had visited Sharoyko in a KGB detention center and that his detention conditions were acceptable.
Sharoyko was detained in October 2017 by Belarus's KGB, accused of being part of a spy ring working for Ukraine's Defense Ministry.
Kizim also said Sharoyko had pleaded guilty to the charges but said that the embassy did not believe the reports.
Ukraine and Belarus expelled each other's diplomats after Sharoyko's arrest.