Videographer Andrei Tolchyn released from prison

Free­lance jour­nal­ist Andrei Tolchyn was among the 37 peo­ple par­doned by Ali­ak­san­dr Lukashenka’s Sep­tem­ber 16 decree. His release is report­ed on @parlamentbel Telegram chan­nel.

Andrei Tolchyn. Cour­tesy pho­to

In March this year, Homel video­g­ra­ph­er was sen­tenced to two and a half years in prison. He was found guilty of pro­mot­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties and defam­ing the Pres­i­dent of Belarus. The charges of dis­cred­it­ing Belarus were dropped at the request of the pros­e­cu­tor. Andrei Tolchyn’s attempt to appeal this deci­sion was unsuc­cess­ful.

On May 31, the journalist’s name appeared on the List of Per­sons Involved in Extrem­ist Activ­i­ties com­piled by the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs of the Repub­lic of Belarus.

Andrei Tolchyn was arrest­ed in Homel on Sep­tem­ber 27 last year and spent almost a year behind bars.

Andrei Tolchyn became a key fig­ure in Homel’s demo­c­ra­t­ic com­mu­ni­ty in the 1990s, advo­cat­ing for work­ers’ rights and serv­ing as a deputy on the Homel City Coun­cil, which sup­port­ed Belarus’s inde­pen­dence and opposed the Moscow coup.

He worked in Pub­lic and Media Rela­tions, led the Unit­ed Civ­il Par­ty, and man­aged char­i­ta­ble foun­da­tions.

He found­ed the Gomel­skie Vedo­mosti news­pa­per and faced inter­mit­tent unem­ploy­ment.

After the 2010 elec­tions, Tolchyn worked with inde­pen­dent media as a video­g­ra­ph­er, fac­ing fines and deten­tions. In 2020, he was arrest­ed with jour­nal­ist Larysa Shchyrako­va dur­ing demon­stra­tions, accused of involve­ment in mass riots.