Minsk 10:18

Cichanoŭskaja demands freedom for former BelaPAN CEO and his wife

January 28, BPN. Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja has demanded that the BelaPAN media company’s former CEO Andrej Alaksandraŭ and his wife Iryna Złobina should be freed.

“Yesterday was the birthday of journalist and political prisoner Andrej Alaksandraŭ. He turned 45 in prison. Last year, he was married in detention – his wife, Iryna Złobina, is also a political prisoner. A month later, they were sentenced to 14 and nine years. They must be released!” she tweeted.

Sources told BPN that Alaksandraŭ, sentenced to 14 years, is in Navapołack’s prison No 1 in the Viciebsk region.

Złobina, sentenced to nine years, has been sent to women’s prison No 4 in Homiel. BelaPAN editor in chief Iryna Leŭšyna, sentenced to four years, is likely held there as well.

Former BelaPAN CEO Dźmitryj Navažyłaŭ is serving a six-year sentence in prison No 3 in Vićba, Viciebsk region.

They received the long prison sentences on October 6, on charges widely seen as politically motivated. The interior ministry put them on its list of “persons involved in extremist activity.”

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