Jailed journo Katsyaryna Barysevich transferred from Zhodzina prison in run-up to her release
Journalist Katsyaryna Barysevich was transferred from the Zhodzina prison, Tut.by reports. Notably, she was carried over one week prior to her release; the imprisonment is to exprire on May 19.
Katsyaryna is likely to be released from a Homiel-based special penal colony to which Belarusian females convicted for the first time are usually sent. In the meantime, she is temporarily held in the pre-trial detention centre in the Belarusian city of Mahiliou.
In late April, the reporter was placed on the preventive register in Zhodzina prison as a person ‘prone to extremism and other destructive actions’.
On March 2, Maskouski district court of Minsk passed a guilty verdict in the widely-reported case of TUT.BY journalist Katsyaryna Barysevich and doctor Artsyom Sarokin. Judge Svyatlana Bandarenka sentenced Barysevich to six months of imprisonment in a penal colony and a fine of 2,900 rubles; Sarokin got a two-year jail term with a one-year reprieve and a fine of 1,450 rubles. He was released in the courtroom.
Katsyaryna Barysevich and Artsyom Sarokin were arrested on November, 19 when the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case over allegedly ‘violating medical privacy which entailed grave consequences’ (Art. 178-3). In her article about the tragic death of protester Raman Bandarenka, Barysevich referred to Sarokin, a doctor working at Minsk emergency care hospital. He gave her medical records which showed that there had been no alcohol in the blood of the victim. The Belarusian authorities, including Alyaksandr Lukashenka, keep claiming that Bandarenka was drunk.
Notably, his mother allowed the publication of information about the death, including the data about the absence of alcohol in his blood. Raman Bandarenka’s murderers have not been found or identified yet. His family did not have any claims against the two defendants.
