A Belarusian court on Wednesday sentenced an investigative journalist to 8 years in prison, the latest step in a sweeping crackdown on independent media through Belarusian authorities.
Siarhei Satsuk, editor-in-chief of the online outlet Yezhednevnik, investigated the corruption of Belarusian leaders and covered the mass protests that ravaged the country for months in 2020.
The Belarusian Journalists’ Association said Satsuk discovered guilt of accepting bribery, abuse of force and incitement to hatred, all of which his defense team rejected as uncovered.
At the conclusion of a trial that took place behind closed doors, the court ruled that the journalist must serve 8 years in a maximum security prison and pay a fine of about $ 6,000, as well as about $ 5,000 in damages.
Satsuk’s media outlet actively covered protests that erupted during the August 2020 presidential election that the opposition and the West dismissed as rigged. Protesters who saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.
The 54-year-old journalist was arrested in December 2021 and has remained at the fence ever since. The Belarusian government blocked Yezhednevnik, who published high-profile investigative reports alleging corruption in the fitness system, on the day of his arrest.
Satsuk said he had won threats for his investigative reporting. In a letter he shared with other bloodhounds some time before his arrest, Satsuk said that “in Belarus, a user’s life and freedom are priceless, it is less difficult for (authorities) to (organize) a hit on a user than to recognize corruption schemes.
Human rights defenders have declared Satsuk a political prisoner, one of more than 1,300.
“The Association of Journalists of Belarus is convinced that law enforcement and the court arbitrarily used fraudulent procedures opposed to Satsuk, seeking revenge on the journalist for his high-profile investigations,” the group said. He demanded the journalist’s release and the annulment of his conviction.
Independent reporters were the first to face government repression. Many have been arrested through security facilities or have fled the country. A total of 32 reporters are lately behind bars, either awaiting trial or serving their sentences, according to the Association of Journalists of Belarus.
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