Prosecutor demands six-year sentence for journalist, lawyer

July 14, BPN. A state prosecutor has asked a judge in Hrodna to sentence journalist Pavieł Mažejka and lawyer Julija Jurhilevič to six years in prison each, Belsat TV reports.

They were charged with extremism for political reasons, human rights activists said.

Both denied any wrongdoing, according to Radyjo Svaboda. Jurhilevič told the court that she was being held in unsanitary conditions and was not allowed to study the case file.

Investigators accused Mažejka of posting reports on Jurhilevič’s decision to resign and on a five-year prison sentence given to dissident artist  Aleś Puškin on the Belsat TV website, Radyjo Svaboda reported quoting the journalist’s wife, Iryna Čarniaŭka. Poland-based Belsat TV has been designated by Belarusian authorities as an extremist group.

Mažejka led a non-governmental organization called the Center of Urban Life, which was shut down by the prosecutors last year, Jurhilevič defended regime critics facing prosecution.

They were arrested in 2022. Judge Maksim Fiłataŭ opened the trial four days ago.