In the court of the Frunzensky district of Minsk, the prosecutor asked to sentence the journalists of the Polish TV channel Belsat Darya Chultsova and Katerina Bakhvalova to two years in a general regime colony for broadcasting one of the capital rallies in November. Tut.by reports on the progress of the case.
State Prosecutor Alina Kasyanchik considered the correspondents' guilt fully proven and requested two years of imprisonment in a general regime colony. “It has been reliably established that the accused acted by a group of persons in a preliminary conspiracy,” she said.
The journalists themselves do not admit their guilt and hope for an acquittal.
Chultsova and Bakhvalova were broadcasting on November 15 from an apartment in one of the houses, the courtyard of which is known among the Belarusian opposition as the “square of changes”. On that Sunday, protesters gathered in the “square” in memory of the deceased activist Roman Bondarenko. He died on November 12 in a hospital after he was beaten in this courtyard by unidentified men in civilian clothes and masks who had come to take pictures of the white-red-white protest ribbons.
The journalists were detained on the evening of November 15 after the rally was dispersed, and since then they have been in a pre-trial detention center. The girls are accused of a crime under Part 1 of Art. 342 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (“Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them”). According to the prosecution, they gathered participants of the rally “by voicing information” on the air, “gave a positive assessment” to what was happening and transmitted information from “destructive channels” in social networks.
In addition, their stream led to a halt in a number of public transport routes. The total damage of the Belarusian “Minsktrans” is estimated at more than 11 thousand Belarusian rubles. The sum was paid in full by the families of Chultsova and Bakhvalova, Minsktrans withdrew the claims.
During the November 15 rally, stun grenades, tear gas, and water cannons were used against the protesters. Law enforcers also liquidated a spontaneous memorial in memory of the deceased Bondarenko.
