Belarus journalist fined for bringing police abuse to light


He reported police abuse – and landed on the wrong side of the bar. Loyeu district court has found Homiel-based independent journalist Kastus Zhukouski guilty of disorderly conduct.

According to Zhukouski, it is a paradox that police’s brutal detaining became the ground to charge him. The policemen not only battered the journalist, but drew up a protocol upon him as well. Now, they are exerting pressure on people who dared to tell the journalist about police abuse.

“Now the persons who granted us interviews about their trouble are facing aggression on the part of policemen who started to hound them, to draw up lots of protocols, ” he says.

It is not the first time Kastus Zhukouski has been fined in 2016, but the total amount has exceeded 50 mln rubles (BYN 5,000 – after redenomination). In its report on human rights violations in Belarus, the International Organization Amnesty International used the prosecution of Zhukouski as an example.

Read also: Kanstantsin Zhukousky sews his mouth in protest (18+)

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