BAJ statement: Verdicts in the “BelaPAN case” are revenge for professional activity and position

Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau, for­mer deputy direc­tor of the news agency, was sen­tenced to 14 years in prison (found guilty of orga­niz­ing protests, tax eva­sion, cre­at­ing “an extrem­ist for­ma­tion Bela­PAN,” and high trea­son).

His wife Iry­na Zlobi­na was sen­tenced to 9 years in jail (on charges of orga­niz­ing protests and high trea­son).

For­mer Bela­PAN direc­tor Dzit­ry Navazhy­lau received a sen­tence of six years in jail (for tax eva­sion and the cre­ation of “an extrem­ist for­ma­tion Bela­PAN”).

Edi­tor-in-chief Iry­na Leushy­na was sen­tenced to four years of impris­on­ment (she was found guilty of cre­at­ing an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion Bela­PAN”).

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists has con­sid­ered the crim­i­nal case against Bela­PAN as polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed since the first day of its staff pros­e­cu­tion. Bela­PAN rep­re­sen­ta­tives per­formed their pro­fes­sion­al duties legal­ly and remained a mod­el of high-pro­file Belaru­sian jour­nal­ism before the arrest. We are con­vinced that it is the per­se­cu­tion of Bela­PAN jour­nal­ists that caused the death of the founder and head of the news agency Ales Lipai in 2018.

The ini­ti­a­tion of crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings and the enor­mous sen­tences in the “Bela­PAN case” are noth­ing but revenge against media rep­re­sen­ta­tives for their hon­est work and posi­tion.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists strong­ly con­demns the reprisals against our col­leagues and demands the imme­di­ate release of the thir­ty media rep­re­sen­ta­tives cur­rent­ly behind bars.