Journalist from Brest fined 9 million rubles

Ales Liauchuk from Brest was found guilty of working for foreign media without accreditation for the third time.

Brest-based journalist Ales Liauchuk was fined 50 basic amounts. The decision was taken by Brest's Leninski district court on July 2. The freelance journalist working for BelaPAN news agency was found guilty of cooperating with Belsat TV, Euroradio reports.

The reason for the charge was his story about a football match between Dinamo Brest and Vitebsk during the Belarusian Championship on May 3. Belsat showed a short interview with famous football player Raman Vasiliuk. The police think the author of the interview was Ales Liauchuk.

Liauchuk didn't admit his guilt and said he had interviewed Dinamo's captain for BelaPAN.

Raman Vasiliuk attended the trial as a witness. He said Liauchuk had interviewed him but hadn't said for which media outlet.

Ales Liauchuk says the court didn't have proofs that he made the story for Belsat. Judge Aleh Miraniuk didn't agree with the journalist. Liauchuk calls the judge's arguments ridiculous:

“The story on Belsat's website was signed as C.A. The judge read it as Latin letters, but later said it was my first name and patronymic name (Ales Siarheyevich) written in reverse order to confuse the court and police.”

Ales Liauchuk is going to appeal against the decision of the Leninski district court of Brest.

Another case was opened against the journalist on June 24 for a story about a religious conflict in the village of Belovezhski.

Ales Liauchuk was already fined 40 basic amounts (6 million rubles) at the end of 2014 and 21 basic amounts (3.78 million) in March for working without accreditation. The second trial was held without the freelancer.