Journalist Iryna Slaunikava accused of founding an extremist formation

Iry­na Slau­nika­va and her hus­band Ali­ak­san­dr Loi­ka were detained at Min­sk air­port on 30 Octo­ber 2021 when return­ing from vaca­tion. Ini­tial­ly, the cou­ple was sen­tenced to 15 days of arrest for pub­lish­ing Bel­sat mate­ri­als on Face­book that were ruled to be extrem­ist.

Anoth­er 15 days of arrest for “dis­or­der­ly con­duct” fol­lowed. On 26 Novem­ber 2021, the jour­nal­ist was crim­i­nal­ly charged with orga­niz­ing actions gross­ly dis­rupt­ing pub­lic order. This arti­cle is rou­tine­ly used against par­tic­i­pants of oppo­si­tion march­es after the rigged elec­tion by the Lukashenko regime and pro­vides for impris­on­ment up to 4 years.

Her hus­band was released after anoth­er 15 days in jail, this time for defi­ance of the police.

Iryna’s father Ali­ak­san­dr Slau­nikau informed that her lawyer had recent­ly found out that she was also charged with the “foun­da­tion of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion” and could face up to 7 years in prison.

The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee with­holds infor­ma­tion from the media about the sta­tus of the inves­ti­ga­tion against Iry­na Slau­nika­va. Her defense attor­neys were oblig­ed to sign a pledge of secre­cy, so even the journalist’s par­ents and hus­band are not aware of the grava­men.

On 3 Novem­ber 2021, fol­low­ing Iry­na Slaunikava’s arrest, the Belaru­sian Inte­ri­or Min­istry rec­og­nized the inde­pen­dent Bel­sat TV chan­nel as an extrem­ist for­ma­tion. The jour­nal­ist had coop­er­at­ed with the chan­nel in the past, but at the time of her arrest, she was a full-time employ­ee of TVP, her father stress­es.

Accord­ing to the Ali­ak­san­dr Slau­nikau, the lawyer says that there are no grounds for the tri­al to be held in cam­era. How­ev­er, some hear­ings might be clas­si­fied due to insuf­fi­cient evi­dence. Iryna’s rel­a­tives expect that she will leave the court­room a free per­son. How­ev­er, they under­stand there are no acquit­tals in the tri­als of jour­nal­ists in Belarus.