TUT.BY reporter Katsyaryna Barysevich has been placed on the preventive register in Zhodzina prison as a person ‘prone to extremism and other destructive actions’.
Being added to the above mentioned list means more severe treatment of an inmate and restricting their rights even in prison, e.g. there is a special place in the cell where such prisoner has to be when a jailkeeper enters; they are also expected to be regularly called in for preventive conversations.
Earlier, it became known that imprisoned Belsat TV journalists Darya Chultsova and Katsyaryna Andreyeva were found herself in the same situation. They are also being held in prison Nr 8 in the town of Zhodzina. In March, media expert Andrey Alyaksandrau and his girlfriend Iryna Zlobina (the both were put in Minsk pre-trial detention centre Nr 1) were also listed as ‘extremists’.
On March 2, Maskouski district court of Minsk passed a guilty verdict in the widely-reported case of journalist Katsyaryna Barysevich and doctor Artsyom Sarokin. JudgeSvyatlana 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.
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