Journalist Alena Tsimashchuk declared political prisoner

Joint state­ment by the Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty.

Ale­na Tsi­mashchuk. Pho­to: Face­book

On June 3, 2024, the Brest Region­al Court sen­tenced jour­nal­ist Ale­na Tsi­mashchuk to 5 years of impris­on­ment and a $14,000 fine. The court found the jour­nal­ist guilty under three arti­cles of the Crim­i­nal Code: dis­cred­it­ing the Repub­lic of Belarus (Arti­cle 369–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code), incit­ing hos­til­i­ty or dis­cord (Part 3 of Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code), par­tic­i­pat­ing in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion (Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code).

Ale­na Tsi­mashchuk is a jour­nal­ist of Brest Region­al Tele­vi­sion and Radio Com­pa­ny, who pre­vi­ous­ly worked as a free­lancer with the region­al pub­li­ca­tions Vech­erny Brest, Brest­sky Kuri­er, Brest­skaya Gaze­ta, the online pub­li­ca­tion Vir­tu­al­ny Brest, and Brest­sky Zele­ny Por­tal.

We, the under­signed orga­ni­za­tions, believe that these actions against Ale­na Tsi­mashchuk are a con­tin­u­a­tion of the pur­pose­ful pol­i­cy of the author­i­ties to lim­it the dis­sem­i­na­tion of uncen­sored infor­ma­tion in the coun­try and a con­tin­u­a­tion of the attack on free­dom of speech. After the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, dozens of media web­sites have been blocked in Belarus, a num­ber of print­ed media has been closed, jour­nal­ists and employ­ees of the Belaru­sian media sec­tor have been impris­oned.

Giv­en the cir­cum­stances, we believe that crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of Ale­na Tsi­mashchuk is actu­al­ly polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and aimed at stop­ping or chang­ing the nature of her legit­i­mate pub­lic activ­i­ties in the domain of non-vio­lent exer­cise of free­dom of expres­sion and dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion.

Based on this and guid­ed by para 2.1 and 3.1 of the Guide­lines on the Def­i­n­i­tion of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers adopt­ed at III Belaru­sian Human Rights Forum, we, human rights defend­ers, rec­og­nize Ale­na Tsi­mashchuk as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er and demand to:

• imme­di­ate­ly release Ale­na Tsi­mashchuk and drop crim­i­nal charges against her;
• refrain from using crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion as an instru­ment of pres­sure on free­dom of expres­sion, or oth­er rights and free­doms;
• imme­di­ate­ly release all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and stop polit­i­cal repres­sion in the coun­try.

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists;

PEN Belarus;

Barys Zvozskau Belaru­sian Human Rights House;

Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee;

Vias­na Human Rights Cen­ter Vias­na;

Legal Initia­tive;

Office for the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties;

Human Con­stan­ta;

Lawtrend.