Belarus Jails Journalist Vyacheslau Lazarau For ‘Extremism’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MINSK/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday condemned a Belarusian court for sentencing journalist Vyacheslau Lazarau to 5.5 years imprisonment for “facilitating extremism.”
Monday’s ruling is part of what activists view as a broader crackdown on independent media and dissidents in Belarus.
“Vyacheslau Lazarau’s sentencing to 5.5 years in prison demonstrates how the country’s ‘extremist’ laws have become the most frequent tool the Belarusian authorities use to jail journalists for their independent reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator.
“Belarusian authorities must drop all charges against Lazarau, release him and other jailed journalists immediately, and repeal the country’s shameful extremism legislation,” Said added in a statement to Worthy News.
A court in the northeastern city of Vitebsk convicted Lazarau, a freelance camera operator who has covered local news, and also his wife, Tatsiana Pytko, who was sentenced to 3 years on charges of “participating in an extremist formation,” said the well-informed human rights group Viasna. It was unclear if Lazarau and Pytko plan to appeal their sentence.
The closed-door trial began on September 5 after authorities accused Lazarau of cooperating with the banned Poland-based independent broadcaster Belsat TV, Worthy News learned.
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Authorities detained Lazarau in February 2023 and Pytko in June after investigators examined the content of Lazarau’s computer and phone and observed his wife in some of the footage, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, an advocacy and trade group operating from exile.
Lazarau was previously detained in 2020 while documenting the protests against President Aleksandr Lukashenko, according to news reports and CPJ investigators.
“Belarus was the world’s fifth worst jailer of journalists, with at least 26 journalists behind bars on December 1, 2022,” when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census, the advocacy group said.
The country, a close ally of Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, has been ruled for nearly three decades by President Alexander Lukashenko, often referred to by critics as “Europe’s last dictator.”
He has faced numerous sanctions, including over his crackdown on protests after the opposition said the 2020 presidential election was rigged in Lukashenko’s favor.
Last year, additional sanctions followed as Belarus allowed its territory to be used by Russia’s army to launch attacks into northern Ukraine as part of Russia’s invasion of the country.
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