Belarus: Journalist Denis Ivashin shockingly sentenced to 13 years in prison

The journalist’s tri­al began on August 15, 2022 and was held behind closed doors. Denis Ivashin was arrest­ed on the evening of Fri­day 12 March 2021 in Grod­no, in the west of the coun­try. Five offi­cers of the Belaru­sian intel­li­gence ser­vice (KGB) searched his home and his par­ents’ house, in the sub­urbs of Grod­no. Par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in the journalist’s links with Ukraine, they seized com­put­ers, tele­phones, SIM cards, bank cards, books, note­books and var­i­ous objects.

Denis Ivashin pub­lished his lat­est inves­ti­ga­tion into for­mer mem­bers of the “Berkut”, the Ukrain­ian riot police, who were recruit­ed into the Belaru­sian police. The KGB accused Denis Ivashin of coop­er­a­tion with Ukrain­ian intel­li­gence. The jour­nal­ist was charged under the Crim­i­nal Code for alleged “inter­fer­ence in the activ­i­ties of an employ­ee of inter­nal affairs” and for alleged “trea­son to the State”.

The EFJ and IFJ denounce a court deci­sion based on unfound­ed accu­sa­tions. The two fed­er­a­tions con­sid­er the tri­al of Denis Ivashin to be a pure trav­es­ty of jus­tice and demand his imme­di­ate release.