Convicted journalists Andreyeva and Chultsova get 2.5‑month sentence reduction

«Kat­siary­na had her prison tag changed on her offi­cial clothes, the cur­rent release date is 5 Sep­tem­ber 2022,» Ihar Ilyash said after his wife called from the pen­i­ten­tiary.

«Kat­siary­na said she was feel­ing well, her voice was cheer­ful. Ear­li­er she wrote in her let­ters that on Sep­tem­ber 1 she enrolled in a col­lege (voca­tion­al school) to train as a hair­dress­er. She said that the teach­ers were nice, and the gen­er­al atmos­phere was good — it helped her to dis­tract from the sad real­i­ty. The learn­ing process brings her pos­i­tive emo­tions.»

Ilyash explained that the court took the same deci­sion con­cern­ing Daria Chultso­va.

Fol­low­ing the changes in the law, the court decid­ed to recal­cu­late the terms of impris­on­ment, now 1 day in a pre-tri­al facil­i­ty (before the ver­dict came into force) equals 1.5 days in the penal colony. Ear­li­er, accord­ing to the ver­dict, the jour­nal­ists of the Bel­sat TV chan­nel were to be released on 20 Novem­ber 2022. Now it turns out that Kat­siary­na Andreye­va and Daria Chultso­va have served half of their two-year term, they have less than a year left to serve.

Bel­sat jour­nal­ists Kat­siary­na Andreye­va and Daria Chultso­va were detained on 15 Novem­ber 2020, after a live broad­cast from the «Square of Change» (a neigh­bor­hood in Charvi­ako­va Street in Min­sk) where pro­test­ers were dis­persed.

In Feb­ru­ary 2021, the jour­nal­ists were sen­tenced to 2 years in prison: the court found them guilty of orga­niz­ing group actions that gross­ly vio­lat­ed pub­lic order.

Human rights activists found Kat­siary­na Andreye­va and Daria Chultso­va polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. They are serv­ing their sen­tences in Homel penal colony #4.