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Protest against President Lukashenko (archive picture from 2020): New reprisals against journalists
Photo: Sergei Gapon / AFP
In Belarus, two journalists have been sentenced to 20 days in prison, including a freelancer for Deutsche Welle (DW).
A court in the city of Mogilev found the Belarusian DW employee Alexander Burakov and Vladimir Lapzewitsch, who works for a local news portal, guilty.
Both had once again participated in an "unauthorized event".
The journalists wanted to cover the trial of the opposition politician Pavel Sevjarynez and several other defendants, who are accused of having "participated in mass riots."
According to Deutsche Welle, Burakov was waiting with other journalists to enter the trial on Wednesday when he was arrested in front of the courthouse.
According to the German international broadcaster and the Belarusian Association of Journalists, Burakov and Lapzewitsch are alleging that they were tortured while in custody.
Burakov said he was woken up again and again at night and the guards forced him to strip naked, DW said.
Burakov had already been sentenced to ten days' imprisonment last year - "for similarly flimsy allegations," as DW writes. DW director Peter Limbourg called on the Belarusian authorities to overturn the verdict against Burakov immediately. "We strongly protest against the violation of the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the press in Belarus," he said. The treatment of Burakov shows "that the regime is increasingly unrestrained against journalists."
Since the presidential election of August 2020, which was accompanied by massive allegations of fraud, there have been repeated protests against the authoritarian ruling President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.
However, the movement has recently lost its popularity - one reason for this is the brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators by the security forces.
Several protesters were killed and hundreds more were sentenced to prison terms.
ssu / AFP
