EU calls guilty verdict to imprisoned journalist’s wife “shameful and politically motivated”

January 26, BPN. The guilty verdict to Darja Łosik is “shameful and politically motivated,” the European Commission’s foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano said on January 25. It is aimed to support “Łukašenka’s regime repression against the people of Belarus,” he said.

“Darja Łosik was sentenced to two years in prison for defending her husband in interviews against fabricated accusations and for appealing to Łukašenka on her husband’s innocence,” he added. “Every day there are new examples in Belarus of arbitrary and cruel sentences in political trials held behind closed doors.”

“This inhuman treatment of Belarusian citizens must stop. The EU reiterates its demand for immediate release of political prisoners,” Stano said.

On January 19, the Brest Regional Court sentenced Łosik to two years in prison after finding her guilty of promoting extremism. The Prosecutor General’s Office said she gave an interview to Belsat, a television channel declared extremist, “in which she positioned herself as a political prisoner’s wife.” She was arrested in October 2022.

In December 2021, her husband, RFE/RL contributor Ihar Łosik, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for alleged sedition and mass riots.

The Łosiks have a four-year-old daughter. Human rights defenders say their persecution is politically motivated.