Belarus journalist gets nine years for treason
TALLINN, ESTONIA—Belarusian journalist Pavel Dabravolski was convicted on Monday of treason and sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security prison, activists said, the fifth media worker to be jailed in two weeks in a relentless government crackdown on freedom of the press.
Dabravolski, who has reported for international and domestic news outlets and won numerous prizes for his work, was found guilty during a closed-door trial at Minsk City Court, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists. The 36-year-old most recently worked for BelaPAN, which the Belarusian authorities have designated as extremist.
President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for over three decades, has stayed in power through a relentless crackdown on dissent.
Massive protests broke out following the 2020 elections, which were widely denounced as fraudulent.
More than 65,000 people were arrested and thousands were beaten.
In the wake of the protests, hundreds of independent media outlets and nongovernmental organizations were shut down and outlawed. Tsikhanouskaya said Dabravolski was being targeted by “trumped-up charges.”
