Trial in TUT.BY case starts behind closed doors

Both defen­dants are accused of grand tax eva­sion, incit­ing social enmi­ty, and encour­ag­ing actions that harm the nation­al secu­ri­ty of Belarus. The crim­i­nal arti­cles car­ry a pun­ish­ment of up to 12 years of impris­on­ment.

Lud­mi­la Chek­ina and Mary­na Zolata­va have been kept in cus­tody since their deten­tion on 18 May 2021. The KGB put them on the list of «per­sons involved in ter­ror­ist activ­i­ties». Both are rec­og­nized as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers.

On the morn­ing of 18 May 2021, law enforcers searched the homes of TUT.BY staff, as well as the com­pa­ny’s offices in Min­sk and provinces.

Fif­teen peo­ple were detained that day. Charges most­ly focused on grand tax eva­sion. Alleged­ly, being a res­i­dent of the High Tech Park, TUT.BY MEDIA received rev­enue not con­di­tioned by the activ­i­ties per­mit­ted for res­i­dents.