Journalist Andrei Tolchyn re-detained after release on pardon

The tri­al of for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er and Homel-based video­g­ra­ph­er Andrei Tolchyn was report­ed by the Homel Vias­na chap­ter.

Andrei Tolchyn. Pho­to from his own archive

The tri­al took place on Decem­ber 5 in the Savet­sky Dis­trict Court of Homel, with Judge Makharou pre­sid­ing.

Human rights activists believe Tolchyn was arrest­ed under Part 2 of Arti­cle 19.11, which con­cerns the dis­tri­b­u­tion of extrem­ist mate­ri­als.

The case of Andrei Tolchyn

Before his arrest and impris­on­ment, Andrei Tolchin worked as a video­g­ra­ph­er with inde­pen­dent media out­lets in the Homel region for sev­er­al years. For his activ­i­ties, he was repeat­ed­ly tried, fined, and detained on admin­is­tra­tive charges. In 2020, he faced pros­e­cu­tion for cov­er­ing post-elec­tion protests in the region. Police accused him and jour­nal­ist Larysa Shchyrako­va of par­tic­i­pat­ing in unau­tho­rized mass events.

On March 21, 2024, Judge Dzmit­ry Kazlou of the Homel Region­al Court found him guilty of pro­mot­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties and slan­der­ing the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Belarus and sen­tenced him to 2.5 years in prison.

On May 31, Tolchyn was list­ed among the «per­sons involved in extrem­ist activ­i­ties» by the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs of the Repub­lic of Belarus.

On Sep­tem­ber 16, 2024, Andrei Tolchyn was released after being par­doned, along with 36 oth­er indi­vid­u­als, by a decree from Pres­i­dent Ali­ak­san­dr Lukashen­ka.