Belsat journalists Andreyeva and Chultsova to face trial on 9 February

The judge is Natal­lia Buhuk. The begin­ning of the hear­ing is at 10 o’clock.

Bel­sat jour­nal­ists Kat­syary­na Andreye­va and Darya Chultso­va have been kept behind bars since 15 Novem­ber. They were detained for broad­cast­ing live a vio­lent dis­per­sal dur­ing the protest in mem­o­ry of Raman Ban­daren­ka and the destruc­tion of the people’s memo­r­i­al by secu­ri­ty forces. Kat­syary­na and Darya were charged under part 1 of Arti­cle 342 (“Orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order”) of the Crim­i­nal Code. The human rights activists rec­og­nized the jour­nal­ists as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers.

The jour­nal­ists are accused of tak­ing an active part and even lead­ing “group actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order” with the help of the live stream, which result­ed in the dis­rup­tion of pub­lic trans­port. The inves­ti­ga­tion con­sid­ers the peace­ful protest on the “Changes Square” as “gross vio­la­tion of pub­lic order”. The inves­ti­ga­tion claims that the live stream of the jour­nal­ists result­ed in the stop­page of 13 bus­es, 3 trol­ley­bus and 3 street­car routes. The dam­age to “Min­sk­trans” was esti­mat­ed at 11,562 rubles and 14 kopecks.