August 26, Pozirk. The human rights community has recognized journalists Aleh Supruniuk and Pavieł Dabravolski as political prisoners, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reported.
On August 8, Supruniuk was convicted of membership in an “extremist group” and sentenced to three years in prison. Prior to the trial, he had spent more than six months in a detention center.
On June 4, the Brest Region Prosecutor’s Office submitted a criminal case against Supruniuk to court without disclosing his name. According to the report, prosecutors alleged that “the man had joined the Belarusian Association of Journalists, declared an ‘extremist group’ by the KGB on February 28, 2023.”
As a BAJ member, Supruniuk had written at least 43 articles, prosecutors charged. He also has a hearing disability.
Dabravolski, a former journalist with Naviny.by, the online newspaper of the BelaPAN news agency, was taken into custody in January. It remains unclear what charges he faces.
He previously worked with independent media and covered 2020 postelection protests, during which he was detained and charged with a minor offense. Dabravolski left Belarus in the fall of 2021 but later returned.
According to BAJ, he is being persecuted for “exercising the right to free expression and dissemination of information.”
