BelaPAN editor-in-chief Iryna Leushyna released from prison

She has com­plet­ed her sen­tence. Accord­ing to Vias­na HRC, the jour­nal­ist was released on Decem­ber 7, 2024.

Iry­na Leushy­na. Pho­to: svaboda.org

«Hel­lo to all my friends! On Decem­ber 7, after 3 years, 3 months, and 3 weeks of impris­on­ment, I safe­ly left Prison No. 4. Since I intend to stay in Belarus, any com­ments from my side are, as you under­stand, impos­si­ble. I’ll only say that my health and spir­it are good. I’m get­ting used to free­dom, the hap­pi­ness of being near my rel­a­tives, and a nor­mal life. Thanks to all who were always wor­ried about me, I felt your sup­port from afar,» Iry­na Leushy­na wrote on Face­book.

Iry­na Leushy­na was arrest­ed on August 18, 2021. She was charged with cre­at­ing or lead­ing an extrem­ist for­ma­tion. The author­i­ties rec­og­nized the Bela­PAN news agency as an «extrem­ist for­ma­tion» just three months after Leushy­na’s arrest.

On Octo­ber 6, 2021, Judge Viachaslau Tulei­ka pro­nounced the ver­dict: Iry­na Leushi­na was sen­tenced to 4 years of impris­on­ment.

The «Bela­PAN case» result­ed in a few more sen­tences: jour­nal­ist and media man­ag­er Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau (14 years in prison), his wife, Iry­na Zlobi­na (9 years in prison), and ex-direc­tor of Bela­PAN Dzmit­ry Navazhy­lau (6 years in prison).

In ear­ly 2023, the Supreme Court con­sid­ered the appeal of the par­tic­i­pants of the “Bela­PAN case. Judge Andrei Kavalchuk con­firmed the ver­dict. Short­ly after, Iry­na Lev­shi­na was trans­ferred to the women’s Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty No. 4 in Homel.