BelTA Case: Facts, lists, related links

Pho­to: b‑g.by

The basis for ini­ti­at­ing a crim­i­nal case was a report by BelTA uni­tary enter­prise about glitch­es when access­ing a paid sub­scrip­tion to the ser­vices pro­vid­ed by BelTA to one of its cus­tomers.

Paid sub­scrip­tion for BelTA news­feed costs 612 BYN a month.

The max­i­mum penal­ty under Art. 349 Part 2 — restric­tion or depri­va­tion of free­dom for up to 2 years.

The Com­mit­tee’s inves­ti­ga­tions involve exec­u­tives of Cul­ture and Art pub­lish­ing insti­tu­tion; Realt.by, ITV, Belaru­sian Sci­ence pub­lish­ing house, Bela­PAN, and Tut.by media.

Alto­geth­er, 18 peo­ple have been detained for ques­tion­ing under the case. Eight peo­ple were held in cus­tody.

The gen­er­al list of the detainees:

August 7

Tat­siana Kar­avenko­va (Bela­pan)

Andrei Ser­a­da (Bela­PAN)

Mary­na Zolata­va (Tut.by)

Han­na Kalty­hi­na (Tut.by)

Ulyana Babayed (Tut.by)

Hali­na Ulasik (Tut.by)

Dzmit­ry Bobryk (Tut.by)

Han­na Yer­ma­chonak (Tut.by)

Yauheniya Beraz­iuk (Tut.by)

Lud­mi­la Chek­ina (Tut.by).

August 8

11. Ary­na Zhuka­va

12. Ali­ak­sei Zhukau (Belarusy i Rynak)

13 .Ihar Khmara (Realt.by)

14. Maria Saro­ka (Realt.by)

15. Ale­na Maslouskaya (Realt.by)

16. Uladzis­lau Kulet­s­ki (Realt.by)

17. Pauliuk Byk­ousky (free­lance reporter for Deutsche Welle, a media expert)

August 9

18. Iry­na Leushy­na (Bela­pan)

The fol­low­ing jour­nal­ists were detaind for 72 hours, spent that time in cus­tody and were released:

Tat­siana Kar­avenko­va (Bela­pan)

Mary­na Zolata­va (Tut.by)

Han­na Kalty­hi­na (Tut.by)

Hali­na Ulasik (Tut.by)

Han­na Yer­ma­chonak (Tut.by)

Ali­ak­sei Zhukau (Belarusy i Rynak)

Pauliuk Byk­ousky (free­lance reporter for Deutsche Welle, a media expert)

Iry­na Leushy­na (Bela­pan)

All these per­sons have the sta­tus of sus­pects in the case.

On Augut 9, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee said that TUT.BY’s chief edi­tor Mary­na Zolata­va alleged­ly ‘admit­ted that that her staff was «using, for a long time and with her knowl­edge,» login infor­ma­tion to BeITA’s  paid sub­scrip­tion.

That’s why, ‘with dis­cov­ered cir­cum­stances in mind, and due to Zolatava’s offi­cial post, she has been charged with offi­cial neg­li­gence under Arti­cle 425 Part 2 of the Crim­i­nal Code.’

Accord­ing to the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, she was released from cus­tody because of «her active coop­er­a­tion with the inves­ti­ga­tion.»

The max­i­mum pun­ish­ment under Arti­cle 425 Part 2 is impris­on­ment for a term of up to sev­en years with depri­va­tion of the right to occu­py cer­tain posts or engage in cer­tain activ­i­ties.

The search­es took place in the fol­low­ing media offices: Tut.by, Bela­PAN, Realt.by, The Cul­ture and Art news­pa­per (the staff con­firmed the fact of the search, but refused to tell the details), The Sci­ence news­pa­per (the staff con­firmed the fact of the search, but refused to tell the details). Inves­tiga­tive activ­i­ties have also been car­ried out in rela­tion to ITV com­pa­ny (web­site ITV.BY, cable TV). The com­pa­ny staff have refused to talk to jour­nal­ists.

The police searched the homes of the fol­low­ing jour­nal­ists:

1. Tat­siana Kar­avenko­va (Bela­PAN) — the police searched her apart­ment and her moth­er’s house in the Hrod­na region

Mary­na Zolata­va (Tut.by)

Han­na Kalty­hi­na (Tut.by)

Hali­na Ulasik (Tut.by)

Han­na Yer­ma­chonak (Tut.by)

Ali­ak­sei Zhukau (Belarusy i Rynak)

Pauliuk Byk­ousky (free­lance reporter for Deutsche Welle, a media expert)

Iry­na Leushy­na (Bela­pan)

All jour­nal­ists fac­ing charges under the case say they had signed non-dis­clo­sure doc­u­ments.

On Novem­ber 22, Mary­na Zolata­va, edi­tor-in-chief of the por­tal TUT.BY, was served offi­cial charges.

Mary­na Zolata­va was charged under Art. 425 part 2 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Fail­ure to act by a com­pa­ny offi­cial). The arti­cle envis­ages penal­ty from a fine to five years of jail.

Ear­li­er she was also sus­pect­ed under Part 2 of Art. 349 (Unau­tho­rized access to com­put­er infor­ma­tion) of the Crim­i­nal Code of Belarus. The crim­i­nal charges against Zolata­va under this arti­cle were dropped “due to non-exis­tance of a crime”.

Thus, all 15 per­sons involved in the “BelTA case” have been served offi­cial charges.

In par­tic­u­lar, the doc­u­ments state that the jour­nal­ists and edi­tors alleged­ly «per­formed delib­er­ate, for finan­cial or oth­er per­son­al gain, unau­tho­rized access­es to com­put­er infor­ma­tion stored in the com­put­er sys­tem and net­work of BelTA uni­tary enter­prise, accom­pa­nied by secu­ri­ty breach, entail­ing oth­er sig­nif­i­cant harm through neg­li­gence.»

Crim­i­nal Charges Against Jour­nal­ists Byk­ous­ki and Kulet­s­ki Dropped.

Pauliuk Byk­ous­ki informed BAJ about the dis­missal of crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings. The crim­i­nal charges were reclas­si­fied reclas­si­fied under Art. 252 of the Crim­i­nal Pro­ce­dure Code «in con­junc­tion with appli­ca­tion of admin­is­tra­tive sanc­tions»

The Deutsche Welle cor­re­spon­dent in Belarus was one of 14 defen­dants in a crim­i­nal «BelTA case».

Also, the inves­tiga­tive com­mit­tee dropped the crim­i­nal charges Uladzis­lau Kulet­s­ki, chief edi­tor of the realt.by.

Arti­cle 86 of the Crim­i­nal Pro­ce­dure Code of Belarus pro­vides for exemp­tion from crim­i­nal lia­bil­i­ty in con­junc­tion with the impo­si­tion of admin­is­tra­tive sanc­tions This applies to per­sons who have com­mit­ted a crime of no seri­ous pub­lic threat for the first time, and who cov­ered the dam­age or payed back the pro­ceeds of crime, or undid the dam­age in oth­er way.

Reac­tions:

Guilty: Zolatava to Pay a Fine and BelTA Costs

Belarus website editor slapped with heavy fine

High-profile case: Popular news portal chief editor to stand trial soon

Tut.by Editor Maryna Zolatava on Trial: Witnesses Claim Coercion on Part of Investigation

Statement on the Searches of Media Offices and Detentions of Journalists

Investigative Committee: Suspects in the BelTA Case Being Released. Zolatava admitted guilt PHOTO, VIDEO

BelTA case: Investigators start to release journos, two still in custody

RSF condemns raids on two independent Belarusian media outlets

Statement of the Belarusian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum In connection with the wave of searches in the editorial offices of the media and the detention of journalists

PPF concerned over detainment of Belarusian Journalists

The IFJ/EFJ condemn Police raid on independent media agencies

Article 19: Stop harassment of independent media outlets

Statement by the Spokesperson of the Secretary General on searches and arrests in Belarusian media

PPF concerned over detainment of Belarusian Journalists