Vyachaslau Lazarau has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison, while his wife, Tatsiana Pytsko, has received a three-year sentence

The sen­tence was hand­ed down today, Sep­tem­ber 25^th, by Judge Yauhen Burunou of the Vit­seb­sk Region­al Court. The tri­al was held behind closed doors, and both were accused of pro­mot­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties.

Viachaslau was detained on 9 Feb­ru­ary this year. Secu­ri­ty forces searched his home and seized his office equip­ment. He has been detained ever since.

Tat­siana Pyt­sko was arrest­ed on 6 June. A few days lat­er, she was charged with cre­at­ing or par­tic­i­pat­ing in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion.

Her hus­band, Viachaslau Laza­rau, was charged under Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code (pro­mot­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties) for asso­ci­a­tion with a non-state media out­let rec­og­nized as an extrem­ist for­ma­tion in Belarus. Accord­ing to the case file, Tat­siana was help­ing the hus­band to pro­duce video footage.

Their one-year-old daugh­ter was tak­en to an orphan­age fol­low­ing Tatsiana’s arrest. Now the girl has been tak­en into cus­tody by rel­a­tives.

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