Belarusian journalist faces jail as authorities continues crackdown on dissent

A Belarusian journalist went on trial Friday on prices linked to his skilled work protecting protests, the most recent transfer in a relentless government crackdown on dissent.

Photojournalist Alyaksandr Zyankou faces as much as six years in jail if convicted on prices of “participation in an extremist group” at Minsk Metropolis Courtroom. Such accusations have been broadly utilized by authorities to focus on opposition members, civil society activists and impartial journalists.

Zyankou has been in custody since his arrest in June, and his health has deteriorated behind bars, in line with the impartial Belarusian Affiliation of Journalists.

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“Zyankou was just taking pictures to chronicle brutal repressions in Belarus, but the authorities hate anyone speaking about or taking images of political terror in the country,” stated the affiliation’s head, Andrei Bastunets. “Belarus is the most repressive country in Europe, where an attempt at free speech is punished by prison.”

The fees towards Zyankou embody “participation in an extremist group,” a typical accusation utilized by authorities to focus on opposition members and journalists.

A complete of 33 Belarusian journalists are at present in jail, both awaiting trial or serving sentences.

Belarusian authorities have cracked down on opponents of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko after large protests triggered by the August 2020 election that gave him a sixth time period in workplace. The balloting was seen by the opposition and the West as fraudulent.

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Protests swept the nation for months, bringing a whole lot of hundreds into the streets. Greater than 35,000 individuals have been arrested, hundreds have been overwhelmed in police custody and a whole lot of impartial media shops and nongovernmental organizations have been shut down and outlawed.

Greater than 1,400 political prisoners stay behind bars, together with leaders of opposition events and famend human rights advocate and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski.

Human Rights Watch strongly condemned the crackdown on dissent and free speech.

“Over the past year, Belarusian authorities doubled down to create an information vacuum around raging repressions by cutting political prisoners off from the outside world and bullying their lawyers and families into silence,” Anastasiia Kruope, assistant Europe and Central Asia researcher on the group, stated in a press release Thursday. “Widespread repression continues in an expanding information void.”