{"id":141261,"date":"2025-06-04T12:05:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T09:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/141261\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:05:06","slug":"reprisals-journalist-faces-criminal-charges-for-links-with-baj","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/141261\/","title":{"rendered":"Reprisals: journalist faces criminal charges for links with BAJ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Briefly: <\/strong>Exiled Bie\u0142aruski Hajun founder given 20 years in prison<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BySol helps dozens leave Belarus since January<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minsk woman convicted of inciting hatred, participating in protests<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 4, Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> Brest region\u2019s prosecutors forwarded to court a case against a journalist accused of association with an extremist group for allegedly cooperating with the exiled Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ). The Prosecutor General\u2019s Office did not disclose the name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other cases of politically-motivated persecution documented in Belarus on June 3 included a lengthy prison sentence for Anton Matolka, founder of the now defunct defense monitoring project Bie\u0142aruski Hajun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Hrodna judge sentenced exiled Matolka to 20 years in prison on extremism-related charges and fined him 84,000 rubels (some $28,000) without the defendant being present at the trial, the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minsk City Court found Kry\u015bcina \u0141apko\u016dskaja guilty of inciting hatred and violent disorder, Na\u0161a Niva <\/em>reported. The sentence remains unknown but most likely she was given a prison term. Last month, the interior ministry branded her as an extremist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The information ministry announced extremist content designations for avtonom.\u043erg<\/em>, revbel.\u043erg<\/em>, the Radix <\/em>YouTube channel, apbel_com<\/em> on Instagram, Za Mir Belarus Za Ukrainu<\/em> on Odnoklassniki, as well as tribunal.inf\u043e<\/em>, Roman<\/em> and \u015bud\u0142o\u016dski <\/em>on TikTok and a satirical book about \u0141uka\u0161enka published back in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, authorities released at least 51 people convicted on charges widely seen as politically motivated. Forty-two of them were pardoned, the Viasna Human Rights Center said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the start of 2025, the BySol Solidarity Foundation has helped more than 75 people threatened by politically-motivated persecution leave Belarus, BySol head Andrej Stry\u017eak said on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of June 4, human rights defenders identified at least 1,182 political prisoners but the real number is considerably higher because many cases go undocumented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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