Convicted freelance videographer Pavel Padabed labeled “extremist”

The entry on the law enforce­ment agency’s List of Belaru­sian Сiti­zens, For­eign Cit­i­zens, and State­less Per­sons Involved in Extrem­ist Activ­i­ties was made on 6 Octo­ber. Pad­abed was sen­tenced to four years in prison for par­tic­i­pat­ing in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion.

Padabed’s alleged offense involved pro­duc­ing video cov­er­age of protests aired on the Bel­sat TV chan­nel.

Dur­ing the tri­al, it was dis­cov­ered that law enforce­ment tapped Pavel Podabed’s phone and accessed his mes­sen­ger con­ver­sa­tions.

The jour­nal­ist plead­ed not guilty, but the Supreme Court ulti­mate­ly upheld the ver­dict.

Pavel Pad­abed was appre­hend­ed on 20 Jan­u­ary 2023, while at the post office pay­ing for util­i­ties. On the day the police searched his apart­ment, they took his com­put­er, phone, and video cam­era.

Short­ly before his arrest, Pavel got a Schen­gen visa and bought a tick­et to leave on Jan­u­ary 21.

Ini­tial­ly, police accused the jour­nal­ist of shar­ing “extrem­ist con­tent” on social media ten years ago. As a result, a court sen­tenced him to a 15-day admin­is­tra­tive deten­tion.

How­ev­er, just before his sched­uled release, Pad­abed was tak­en for inter­ro­ga­tion and sub­se­quent­ly moved to a remand cen­ter on charges of par­tic­i­pat­ing in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion.

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