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Rights groups declare journalist Karniej political prisoner
March 25, Pozirk. Belarusian human rights groups have declared journalist Ihar Karniej a political prisoner, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reports.
Authorities are limiting the dissemination of uncensored news and keep attacking the freedom of speech in Belarus, says the statement signed by the Viasna Human Rights Center, Belarusian PEN and Pravavaja Inicyjatyva. Karniej’s persecution is in line with this “deliberate policy,” they noted.
Human rights groups demanded an “immediate release of Ihar Karniej and termination of criminal prosecution against him.” Authorities must stop using criminal charges as an instrument of pressure on human rights and freedoms, end reprisals and release all political prisoners, they stressed.
Karniej, a former RFE/RL Belarus Service correspondent, has been in custody since July 2023. On March 22, judge Siarhiej Kacar from Minsk sentenced him to three years in prison on extremism-related charges.
As of March 25, human rights defenders identified at least 1,408 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented. Opposition sources estimate the number of political prisoners at around 5,000.
