Belarusian Journalist Slaunikava Handed Five-Year Prison Term Amid Crackdown

HOMEL, Belarus — A Belaru­sian jour­nal­ist in the south­east­ern city of Homel has been sen­tenced to five years in prison as the gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to crack down on the media fol­low­ing mass protests sparked by a dis­put­ed pres­i­den­tial elec­tion two years ago that hand­ed vic­to­ry to author­i­tar­i­an ruler Alyak­san­dr Lukashen­ka.

Judge Mikalay Dolya of the Homel region­al court sen­tenced Iry­na Slau­nika­va on August 3 after find­ing her guilty of lead­ing an extrem­ist group and orga­niz­ing activ­i­ties that dis­rupt social order.

Pros­e­cu­tors sought four years in prison for Slau­nika­va. It is not clear how the jour­nal­ist plead­ed as the tri­al was held behind closed doors.

Slau­nika­va, a for­mer cor­re­spon­dent for Bel­sat TV who went on tri­al in June, was first arrest­ed along with her hus­band, Alyak­san­dr Loy­ka, in Octo­ber 2021. The cou­ple was sen­tenced to 30 days in jail on charges of dis­tri­b­u­tion of extrem­ist mate­ri­als and minor hooli­gan­ism.

After serv­ing their jail terms, Slau­nika­va was charged again, this time with «lead­ing an extrem­ist group» and the orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of events dis­rupt­ing social order. Loy­ka was not arrest­ed a sec­ond time.

Lukashen­ka, 67 and in pow­er since 1994, has tight­ened his grip on the coun­try since the 2020 elec­tion by arrest­ing — some­times vio­lent­ly — tens of thou­sands of peo­ple. Fear­ing for their safe­ty, most oppo­si­tion mem­bers have fled the coun­try.

Most of the coun­try’s inde­pen­dent media have also been either arrest­ed or left the coun­try due to the crack­down.

The West has refused to rec­og­nize the results of the elec­tion and does not con­sid­er Lukashen­ka to be the coun­try’s legit­i­mate leader. Many coun­tries have imposed sev­er­al rounds of sanc­tions against his regime in response to the sup­pres­sion of dis­sent in the coun­try.