A Belarus court docket Thursday sentenced Gennady Mozheyko, a reporter working for the pro-Kremlin Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi, to 3 years jail. The court docket discovered that Mozheyko violated Half 1 of Article 368 of Belarusian legislation by insulting Belarusian authorities. The court docket additionally convicted Mozheyko underneath Half 1 of Article 130 for inciting social enmity.
The Minsk Metropolis Courtroom sentenced Mozheyko primarily based on an alleged collection of crimes dedicated from June 23, 2020, via October 2021. The indictment from Belarusian prosecutors accused Mozheyko of creating damaging, indecent and inadmissible statements about President Alexander Lukashenko in his on-line publications for Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi. Moreover, the indictment accused Mozheyko of supporting anti-Lukashenko actions and campaigning towards Lukashenko’s authorities.
Belarusian authorities first arrested Mozheyko on October 1, 2021, in Moscow, Russia. One of many articles that introduced Mozheyko to the eye of Belarusian authorities handled the killing of a Russian KGB agent. Mozheyko described the killer, Andrey Zeltser, as somebody who stood for the reality. When Belarusian authorities got here to Russia to grab Mozheyko, he tried to flee to Germany. Nevertheless, he was detained by Russian authorities earlier than he may escape. Belarusian authorities charged Mozheyko on October 5, 2021.
Since July 2021, Belarusian authorities have repeatedly cracked down on unbiased media retailers, akin to Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi. Mozheyko now joins the opposite 1,453 political prisoners in Belarus, based on Belarusian rights group Viasna.
