Former Tut.by employees to stand trial in absentia
On July 15 the Minsk City Court began the trial in absentia of former employees of the Tut.by portal Volha Loika, Alena Taukachova and Katsiaryna Tkachenka. All defendants are currently out of Belarus.
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Volha Loika, Alena Taukachova and Katsiaryna Tkachenka
Journalists from the non-governmental news portal Tut.by Volha Loika, Alena Taukachova and legal consultant Katsiaryna Tkachenka are charged under four criminal articles:
- Part 3 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code (incitement to social enmity or hostility);
- Part 2 of Article 243 of the Criminal Code (in the old version of the Criminal Code – tax evasion);
- Part 1 of Article 342 (organization and preparation of acts seriously disrupting public order, or active participation in them);
- Part 3 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code (calls for restrictive measures (sanctions) and other actions aimed at harming the national security of Belarus).
According to the schedule on the Minsk City Court’s website, Judge Valiantsina Ziankevich, known for her previous politically motivated rulings in absentia and in person, has been appointed to preside over the case. It was she who handcuffed Tut.by editor-in-chief Maryna Zolatava and Tut.by general director Liudmila Chekina during the trial. On March 17, 2023, they were sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony.
At the same time, the authorities planned to try the editor-in-chief of the Political and Economic Bloc of the online edition, Volha Loika, journalist Alena Taukachova and legal advisor Katsiaryna Tkachenka. However, they did not appear in court as they were able to leave Belarus.
Journalists were put on the “terrorist list”
Today’s defendants were detained together with other employees of the editorial office during the storming of the office of Tut.by in Minsk on May 18, 2021. At that time, a criminal case was opened on charges of large-scale tax evasion through the use of the High-Tech Park. The human rights community recognized them as political prisoners.
Volha Loika was released in March 2022, Alena Taukachova was released in July on bail with the obligation to appear in court. They did not try their fate and left Belarus when the date of the trial of Tut.by management was announced.
Later, pro-government TV channels announced that the “escaped” defendants had been put on an international wanted list and their case had been separated into a “special case”. In April 2023, the Minsk City Court (the same Judge Ziankevich) fined each of the guarantors of the escaped employees of the portal 500 basic units (at that time 18,500 rubles). Alena Taukachova’s guarantors were political analyst Yauheni Preiherman and State parliament deputy Valery Varanetsky, Volha Loika’s guarantors were chairman of the Republican Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Aliaksandr Shvets.
In October 2020, the KGB put the journalists on the “terrorist list”. Volha Loika and Alena Taukachova are listed as persons involved in terrorist activities.
Volha Loika: There is no point in following this trial
Volha Loika is currently working on her media project Plan B, which she founded last year in Poland. In her comment to BAJ, the journalist said that she was not interested in the trial against her and her colleagues, and would not even follow it closely. According to Volha, first of all, she does not see any sense in taking part in an obviously absurd action, and secondly, no one “from the other side” has contacted her. She has not attempted to contact her public defender or anyone in the court system.
“I don’t see the point and I won’t be involved in any way,” Volha Loika said.
Tut.by, the largest and most popular non-governmental Internet portal in Belarus, was shut down by the authorities in May 2021. Part of the team that remained at large was forced to leave the country in July of that year and founded a media project in exile, Zerkalo.io. The new media outlet became Tut.by’s successor and it continues the portal’s traditions. In Belarus and Russia, access to the online edition is blocked, while its content is recognized as “extremist materials”. On June 9, 2023, the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus declared Zerkalo.io website and other Internet resources of the media project “extremist formation”.
On December 3, 2020, the Economic Court of Minsk deprived the Tut.by portal of the status of mass media. And on June 14, 2022, the same Economic Court of Minsk recognized Tut.by Media LLC as an “extremist organization” – the website, pages in social networks, as well as “symbols and attributes” of Tut.by were found to be involved in extremism.
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