Katsiaryna Andreyeva

Kat­siary­na Andreye­va, Bel­sat TV jour­nal­ist, behind bars since 15 Novem­ber 2020.

On 15 Novem­ber 2020, Kat­siary­na Andreye­va (Bakhvala­va) was arrest­ed in an apart­ment on the Square of Change, from where she was broad­cast­ing the protests for the Bel­sat TV chan­nel. Ten SWAT offi­cers broke the door and rushed inside order­ing her to pack her things. Kat­siary­na was not told what she was being arrest­ed for.

Andreye­va was admin­is­tra­tive­ly detained for a week for «par­tic­i­pa­tion in an unau­tho­rized pub­lic assem­bly and dis­obe­di­ence to the police.» She plead­ed not guilty and accused the police offi­cers who drew up the report of giv­ing false tes­ti­mo­ny. She was lat­er accused of orga­niz­ing and prepar­ing actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order.

On 18 Feb­ru­ary 2021, she was sen­tenced to two years of impris­on­ment.

On 10 Feb­ru­ary 2022, Kat­siary­na was trans­ferred back to jail and charged with «high trea­son.» On 13 July 2022, Aleh Kharosh­ka, a judge of Homel Region­al Court, sen­tenced the jour­nal­ist to 8 years and 3 months of impris­on­ment.

The jour­nal­ist was rec­og­nized as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er. Andreye­va was award­ed the Order of Paho­nia by the Belaru­sian People’s Repub­lic Coun­cil.

Sen­tence: 2 years of impris­on­ment under 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code (orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order) and 8 years and 3 months of impris­on­ment under Arti­cle 356 of the Crim­i­nal Code (high trea­son).

Judges: Natal­lia Buhuk (first sen­tence), Aleh Kharosh­ka (sec­ond sen­tence).

Birth­day: 2 Novem­ber 1993