Wife Of Jailed RFE/RL Journalist Sentenced to Two Years In Prison In Belarus

Judge Mikalay Hry­harovich of the Brest region­al court pro­nounced the ver­dict and hand­ed down the sen­tence on Jan­u­ary 19, one day after the tri­al start­ed. The sen­tence was exact­ly what the pros­e­cu­tor had request­ed.

The Pros­e­cu­tor-Gen­er­al’s Office has said the charge against Darya Losik stems from an inter­view she gave to Poland-based Bel­sat TV, which has been offi­cial­ly labeled an extrem­ist group by Min­sk, in which she «posi­tioned her­self as the wife of a ‘polit­i­cal pris­on­er.’ »

«She expressed her per­son­al neg­a­tive assess­ment of state organs involved in crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion and jus­tice. She also said her hus­band had not com­mit­ted any crimes and had been ille­gal­ly con­vict­ed. She called on rel­a­tives of oth­er con­victs to fol­low her exam­ple,» the Pros­e­cu­tor-Gen­er­al’s Office said.

Darya Losik was detained in Octo­ber after police searched her home. The 4‑year-old daugh­ter of Darya and Ihar Losik, Pauli­na, is cur­rent­ly with Darya’s par­ents.

The Unit­ed States has called for the imme­di­ate and uncon­di­tion­al release of Darya Losik, while RFE/RL Pres­i­dent Jamie Fly has also demand­ed her imme­di­ate release and con­demned her detain­ment by Belaru­sian author­i­ties.

Ihar Losik was sen­tenced to 15 years in prison in Decem­ber 2022 on charges that remain unclear.

The hus­band of exiled Belaru­sian oppo­si­tion leader Svy­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya, Syarhey Tsikhanous­ki, as well as four oth­er blog­gers and oppo­si­tion politi­cians and activists, were sen­tenced to lengthy prison terms along with Losik at the time.

Losik and oth­er defen­dants have insist­ed that the case against them is polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed

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