Ex-TUT.BY journalist Aliaksandr Dzemidovich sentenced to 2.5 years of freedom restriction

The sen­tence was hand­ed down on 22 August. After the ver­dict, Dzemi­dovich was released.

Ali­ak­san­dr Dzemi­dovich was detained on 25 May 2022 at his work­place in Min­sk. Accord­ing to eye­wit­ness­es, three plain-clothed law enforcers came to his office and brought him for a search at his home. Lat­er the com­mer­cial direc­tor was sen­tenced to 15 days of arrest for defy­ing police orders (Arti­cle 24.3 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Offens­es Code).

On 19 June 2022, the pro-gov­ern­ment Telegram chan­nel Tsen­tr E report­ed that a crim­i­nal case was opened against Dzemi­dovich for gross dis­or­der­ly con­duct. A video of Dzemi­dovich was pub­lished, in which he admits his par­tic­i­pa­tion in protests in 2020.

Ali­ak­san­dr Dzemi­dovich pre­vi­ous­ly worked in var­i­ous posi­tions at TUT.BY media out­let. He was the head of a com­mer­cial ser­vice depart­ment before the shut­down of the pub­li­ca­tion in May 2021.