Imprisoned Belarus journalist Katsiaryna Andreyeva begins new trial on treason charges

New York, July 5, 2022 – Belarus author­i­ties should imme­di­ate­ly and uncon­di­tion­al­ly release jour­nal­ist Kat­siary­na Andreye­va and stop pros­e­cut­ing mem­bers of the press over their work, the Com­mit­tee to Pro­tect Jour­nal­ists said Tues­day.

On July 4, Andreyeva’s tri­al on trea­son charges start­ed behind closed doors in the south­east­ern city of Homel, accord­ing to a Face­book post by her hus­band, Ihar Ilyash, and report by the Poland-based inde­pen­dent broad­cast­er Bel­sat TV, where she works as a cor­re­spon­dent.

“Try­ing an already-jailed jour­nal­ist on trumped-up retal­ia­to­ry charges only shows the vin­dic­tive nature of the Belaru­sian gov­ern­ment under Pres­i­dent Alek­san­dr Lukashenko. It’s clear that noth­ing will stop author­i­ties from try­ing to silence those who cov­ered the 2020 protests demand­ing Lukashenko’s res­ig­na­tion,” said Gul­noza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Cen­tral Asia pro­gram coor­di­na­tor. “Author­i­ties must imme­di­ate­ly stop this sham tri­al and release Kat­siary­na Andreye­va and all oth­er impris­oned jour­nal­ists.”

Andreye­va was detained along­side cam­era oper­a­tor Daria Chultso­va in Novem­ber 2020 while livestream­ing protests against Lukashenko’s con­tin­ued rule. She was already serv­ing a two-year prison sen­tence when author­i­ties brought new charges against her in April, as CPJ doc­u­ment­ed at the time.

“She is fac­ing from sev­en to 15 years in jail only for being a jour­nal­ist,” Ilyash wrote in his Face­book post, adding that it was not clear how long the tri­al would last, and that he was not able to see Andreye­va dur­ing the pro­ceed­ings.

Belarus was the fifth worst jail­er of jour­nal­ists in the world, with at least 19 jour­nal­ists behind bars on Decem­ber 1, 2021, when CPJ con­duct­ed its most recent prison cen­sus.