A court in Minsk has sentenced six members of the journalism advocacy group Busly Lyatsyat (Storks Are Flying) to lengthy prison terms on terrorism charges that rights activists say are politically motivated.
The Vyasna human rights center in Minsk said Judge Anastasia Papko on September 28 sentenced Andrey Buday to 15 years, Alyaksey Hamez to 14 1/2 years, Alyaksey Ivanisau to 14 years, Alyaksandr Muravyou and Alyaksandr Sidarenka to 12 years each, and Mikalay Biblis to 8 1/2 years in prison.
The judge also ordered each defendant to pay hefty fines
The six men were found guilty of being members of Busly Lyatsyat, which was officially declared a terrorist organization and banned in Belarus in November 2021.
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The group's members also were convicted of participating in activities disrupting social order, conducting a terrorist act against a state official, premeditated damage to private property, incitement of hatred, and public calls for international sanctions against Belarus. The trial was held behind closed doors.
The men were arrested in September-October 2021 amid a crackdown on independent journalists, opposition politicians, and rights activists following unprecedented mass protests challenging the results of an August 2020 presidential poll that declared authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka the winner.
Rights activists and opposition politicians say the poll was rigged to extend Lukashenka's rule. Thousands have been detained during countrywide protests and there have been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people have died during the crackdown.
Many of Belarus's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, while Lukashenka has refused to negotiate with the opposition.
Vyasna said on September 29 that lawyer Dzmitry Pigul, who represented one of the defendants at the trial of the Busly Lyatsyat group, was arrested late on September 28 on a charge of "revealing data related to a preliminary investigation or closed trial."
The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown.