Journalist Mažejka released from prison –  rights group

December 16, Pozirk. Authorities have released journalist Hienadź Mažejka from prison, said the Viasna Human Rights Center.

Mažejka was arrested in early October 2021 over his interview with a classmate of IT professional Andrej Zielcer who died in a shootout with the Committee for State Security (KGB) agents during a raid of his apartment.

Fierce propaganda criticism of the interview prompted Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi, the newspaper that published it, to close down.

In March, Mažejka was given three years in prison on charges of inciting hatred and insulting Alaksandar Łukašenka. Authorities also blacklisted him as a “person involved in terrorist activities.”

The circumstances of his release remain unknown but most likely he had served his prison sentence in full, as the time that he had spent in custody awaiting trial counted as a day and a half in prison.

In September, human rights defenders identified at least 124 people convicted in the “Zielcer case,” most of them given prison terms.

Currently, 32 media workers remain behind bars in Belarus.