Baranavičy-based journalists sentenced to 14, 12 years in prison on high treason charges
February 27, Pozirk. The Brest Regional Court on February 26 sentenced Uładzimir Janukievič and Andrej Pakalenka, journalists associated with the BAR24 and Intex Press media in Baranavičy, to 14 and 12 years in prison after finding them guilty of high treason, the Belarusian Association of Journalists reported.
Janukievič was ordered to pay 135,000 rubels (€40,000) and Pakalenka, 45,000 rubels (€13,300), in fines. Details of the charges are unknown because the trial was held behind closed doors.
Janukievič, 65, and Pakalenka, 44, served as CEO and deputy CEO of the local newspaper Intex-Press, designated as “extremist content” by authorities in April 2023. The designation followed a police raid on the newspaper’s office on February 15, 2023, in which law enforcement officers seized all computers and cameras. Janukievič and Pakalenka went on to launch the news website bar24.by, but were arrested in December 2024 together with four other journalists.
In November, the four journalists – Natalla Siemianovič, Mikita Piatroŭski, Rusłan Raviaka and Ludmiła Zielankova – were sentenced to terms of two and three years of “restricted freedom” in home confinement on extremism-related charges.
On February 27, authorities in Belarus put on trial another journalist, Pavieł Dabravolski, on high treason charges.
