Kobryn: Belsat TV contributors facing new trial


The trials of Brest-based freelance journalists Ales Lyauchuk and his wife Milana Kharytonava have been deferred to April 12 and 13 respectively. The Belsat TV contributors are accused of disobeying to the police’s orders.

As the journalists were summoned to the Kobryn court only on April 6, they asked to postpone the hearings so that they could familiarize themselves with the case files and seek legal assistance.

In the courtroom, the reporters received subpoenas to the town police department. Another protocol will be drawn upon them. Lyauchyk and Kharytonava are likely to be charged with contributing to a foreign mass medium without accreditation (Article 22.9 of the Belarusian Administrative Code).

Belsat journalists Ales Lyauchuk and Milana Kharytonava were brutally detained by unknown men in civilian clothes in Kobryn on March 18. In addition to the ruff detention, professional equipment of the journalists was seized. Milana Harytonava’s phone was broken and her fitness tracker was stolen. In Kobryn police department, protocols were drawn on Ales and Milana for disobeying the police’ and ‘violation of mass media law’. Police officers even threatened them with murder.

“We see that the police have start hunting for independent journalists who report the real situation in Belarus. Furthermore, there is a culture of impunity in which our policemen and judges feel they can do what they want and go unpunished. They seem to have got the-go-ahead order. What they are doing to us is a violation of our rights, it is actually a ban on the profession,” Lyauchuk said.

belsat.eu

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