Rehijanalnaya Hazieta’s editor in chief given four years in prison

November 3, Pozirk. Judge Siarhiej Iršyn of the Maładziečna District Court, Minsk region, has sentenced journalist Alaksandar Mancevič to four years in prison after finding him guilty of discrediting the state, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.

Mancevič, editor in chief and co-founder of the privately-owned newspaper Rehijanalnaja Hazieta, has also been fined 94,000 rubels (over $29,000).

The prosecutor said he was “spreading deliberately false information in the newspaper and its online resources” from January 1, 2020 to March 15, 2023.

The journalist pleaded not guilty.

Rehijanalnaja Hazieta was the leading independent newspaper based in the Minsk region’s Maładziečna from 1995 to 2021 that covered developments in seven districts of the Minsk and Hrodna regions. Mancevič has won several journalism awards for his work.

In 2020, the newspaper covered postelection protests and police brutality in the region.

In January, authorities blacklisted Rehijanalnaja Hazieta’s website and social media as extremist content. A few months later, police arrested Mancevič after a raid on his home in Vilejka, Minsk region. Human rights groups consider him a political prisoner.

At least 30 media workers are currently behind bars in Belarus, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.