BELARUS SENDS JOURNALIST TO PRISON FOR EIGHT YEARS FOR ‘STATE TREASON’

Known by the pen name Katerina Andreyeva, Katerina Bakhvalova had already received a two-year term for “violating public order” and was scheduled for release in September.

The 28-year-old was detained alongside journalist Daria Chultsova in November 2020 as they were documenting one of the anti-government protests that erupted across Belarus that year.

“Our colleague Katerina Andreyeva was sentenced to eight years in prison,” the Poland-based Belsat TV channel and media said on Telegram.

It said she was transferred from the prison colony where she was held in Gomel, southeastern Belarus, and brought to a pre-trial detention centre in February.

“For 55 days, her relatives did not know the details of the case,” Belsat said.

The Viasna rights group said on its website that her family was informed in April that she was given a new “state treason” charge.

Political prisoners

Viasna considers Bakhvalova to be one of 1,244 political prisoners in the country.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the sentence was punishment for showing “the truth”.

“It makes me so angry to see the regime take revenge on those who dare to resist,” she said on Twitter. “She dared to show the truth about the regime’s brutality to the world.”