Journalist Pratasievič to go on trial together with his former Nexta colleagues

February 15, BPN. Journalist Raman Pratasievič will go on trial at the Minsk Regional Court together with Ściapan Puciła, Nexta media project founder, and journalist Jan Rudzik, both of whom will be tried in absentia, the court’s online schedule says.

Pratasievič’s name was not mentioned in the context of the Nexta trial before. Pratasievič remains under house arrest in Belarus as he reportedly accepted a plea bargain. Police arrested him and Russian national Sofya Sapega (Safija Sapieha) in a Minsk airport in May 2021, after their flight had been forced to land.

The EU-based Puciła and Rudzik would be tried under special proceedings that target those living abroad and evading contact with investigators. The authorities’ ultimate goal in the process is to strip dissidents of their Belarusian citizenship.

Judge Viačasłaŭ Tulejka, known for passing a number of politically motivated verdicts, including in the BelaPAN‘s case, will preside over the proceedings.

The Prosecutor General’s Office referred the case against Puciła, Rudzik and Pratasievič to court in late 2022. It accused them of forming an extremist group, staging mass riots, calling for the seizure of power and other crimes punishable by long prison sentences. The prosecutors also demanded that the accused pay 30 million rubels (some $11 million) for property damage.

In May 2022, Belarusian authorities sentenced Sapega to six years in prison for allegedly administering a Telegram channel that exposed the identities of law enforcement officers who brutalized and tortured peaceful protesters.