The trial over BelaPAN journalists suspended for two months

A reg­u­lar closed-door hear­ing of the Min­sk Region­al Court on the ‘Bela­PAN case’, which was held on June 29, result­ed in an unex­pect­ed deci­sion to sus­pend the process for at least two months.

Judge Viachaslau Tulei­ka made the deci­sion.

The rea­son was the resump­tion of crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings. In rela­tion to whom they are being con­duct­ed or will be con­duct­ed is not known, reports Pozirk https://t.me/pozirkonline with ref­er­ence to BPN.

The closed-door tri­al began on May 6. Four polit­i­cal pris­on­ers are tried: jour­nal­ist and media man­ag­er Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau and his part­ner Iry­na Zlobi­na, Bela­PAN edi­tor-in-chief and direc­tor Iry­na Leushy­na, and for­mer agency direc­tor Dzmit­ryi Navazhy­lau. 

Polit­i­cal pris­on­ers are charged with a num­ber of arti­cles of the Crim­i­nal Code, includ­ing orga­niz­ing group actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order, and prepar­ing or teach­ing such activ­i­ties; high trea­son; cre­at­ing and lead­ing an extrem­ist orga­ni­za­tion; eva­sion of tax­es and fees.