Supreme Court dismissed Siarhei Satsuk’s appeal
Siarhei Satsuk will serve 8 years in prison – the Supreme Court upheld the sentence of the first-instance court. He will shortly be transferred to a correctional facility.
The court hearing on Siarhei Satsuk’s case took place on 10 February in camera. Due to such “confidentiality”, the details of the session are unknown, but as a result, Supreme Court Judge Tatsiana Vasilevich found no reason for resentencing.
This is despite the fact that Siarhei Satsuk, who had specialized in legal issues for many years, first at Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta and then at the Ezhednevnik media outlet, took the complaint extremely seriously. His written protest counted 85 pages of evidence to prove his innocence. However, the judge with 20 years of experience in the law field seemed to be unimpressed by these arguments.
Siarhei Satsuk is an investigative journalist and editor of the Ezhednevnik news outlet (ej.by). He was detained on 8 December 2021 and charged with bribetaking, inciting social hatred, and abuse of power or office.
On 26 October 2022, Minsk City Court Judge Sviatlana Bandarenka sentenced the defendant to 8 years of imprisonment and a fine.
He is also banned from holding administrative positions for five years. To ensure the execution of the sentence, the property of the journalist was seized: a car, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and other electronic devices.