Source: Agencies
The Belarusian authorities have sentenced a journalist and a lawyer who defends political prisoners to six years in prison, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.
Journalist Pavel Mazika and lawyer Yulia Yurgilevich were found guilty of aiding “extremist activity” in the ex-Soviet country ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko for nearly three decades.
Since his disputed re-election sparked mass protests in 2020, Lukashenko has stepped up repression of his critics, imprisoning them or forcing them into exile, AFP reports.
Yurgilevich was accused of giving Mazika information about the trial of the Belarusian artist and political prisoner, Alice Pushkin, which the journalist then published on the Belsat news website.