Freedom of the press | Belarus sentenced the journalist to five years in prison – Polish Prime Minister: “The sentence is a complete scandal”

Iryna Slaunikava, the former reporter of the Belsat TV channel, was arrested in October.

3.8. 21:35

Belarusian the court has sentenced the former journalist of the Polish Belsat TV channel Iryna Slaunikava for five years in prison, reports the Reuters news agency.

Slaunikava, the vice-president of the Union of Journalists of Belarus, was arrested in October at the airport when he was returning from vacation.

According to the verdict, Slaunikava from Belarus was guilty of founding an extremist group and organizing riots. Reuters reports that several people have received similar sentences in the past two years.

Most of the trial was held behind closed doors. According to the European Federation of Journalists EFJ, the trial lasted almost one and a half months.

“The verdict is a complete scandal and a violation of all societal norms, human rights and journalistic standards,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki write on Facebook.

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According to Morawiecki, Poland intends to respond to the verdict quickly and at the international level.

EFJ on the other hand, demands the immediate release of Slaunikava and the actions of the EU, the Council of Europe and the European Security and Cooperation Organization OSCE to punish Belarusian actors.

According to EFJ, Slaunikava is a political prisoner. The Belarusian activist group Vesna-96 has estimated, according to Reuters, that there are approximately 1,300 political prisoners in Belarus, many of whom have detained the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko because of the protests against it.

The government of Belarus has classified Belsat as an extremist organization. Another Belsat reporter was sentenced to eight years in prison for treason in July.

According to EFJ, Slaunikava had not worked for Belsat for a long time. At the time of his arrest, he was working for a Polish TV channel.

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