Journalist’s appeal trial to open on June 16

June 12, BPN. The Belarusian Supreme Court will consider journalist Hienadź Mažejka’s appeal against a prison sentence on June 16, according to electronic court documents.

Mažejka was arrested in October 2021, after he interviewed a classmate of an IT professional who died in a gunfight against KGB agents during a raid on his apartment.

Propaganda’s fierce criticism of the interview prompted Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi, the newspaper that published it, to close down.

According to investigators, Mažejka wrote “negative, obscene and unacceptable” comments about Alaksandr Łukašenka on the Internet.

On March 23, Minsk City Court sentenced the journalist to three years in prison for inciting hatred and insulting the head of state.

Given that every day in custody counts as a day and a half in jail, he has a little over a year to serve, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Judge Uładzimir Čaravač will preside over the appeal trial.