Committee to Protect Journalists slams sentence for Belarusian cameraman

July 4, BPN. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has denounced the four-year prison sentence handed down to reporter Pavieł Padabied as a “travesty of justice,” after a judge in Minsk found him guilty of extremism for cooperation with the Polish-based Belsat TV.

Investigators also accused him of involvement in the production of reports about kidnapped cameraman Źmicier Zavadski and murdered journalist Pavieł Šaramiet.

According to prosecutors, he had an account in a foreign bank – evidence of his “selfish motives” and “financial benefits.”

Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, described his two-day trial as rushed in a statement released on June 30.

“Authorities should drop all charges against Padabied, release him immediately alongside all other imprisoned journalists, and stop retaliating against members of the press for their reporting,” she said.

Padabied has cooperated with independent media as a photographer and cameraman for more than 20 years.

Law enforcers arrested him in January, one day before his scheduled trip abroad.

According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), the police tapped his phone and had access to his correspondence on messengers.

At least 34 media professionals are held behind bars in Belarus, the BAJ said.