Was Judge Scared By Not Getting Schengen Visa And Refused To Pass Judgement On Journalists?

Due the political motivation of Aliaksandr Barazenka’s trial, the judge who conducted the first meeting has also changed.

920 Belarusian rubles of fine and the confiscation of equipment. The Pershamaiski district court of Minsk delivered this verdict to Belsat journalist Aliaksandr Barazenka. The authorities used the case of alleged violation of copyrights for the Belsat brand for another blow against independent journalism in Belarus.

Photo and video recording were banned at the court. But journalists have got used to it. Aliaksandr Barazenka managed to preserve his sentence for history.

It is about confiscating all the equipment from two Minsk Belsat offices

On March 31, the equipment was confiscated by the employees of the Department of Combating Economic Crimes, as well as the one with which Barazenka was detained on March 25. After the confiscation, stickers with the Belsat logo appeared on it, which became a formal reason for the prosecution.

"A lot of waste paper added, which in no way proves the presence of these labels, nor the fact that I have put them on, nor that even if they were there, that it somehow violates Beliakou's commodity rights," – Aliaksandr Barazenka is outraged.

Who is Beliakou and why special services use him?

As it became known at the final meeting, law enforcers learnt the address of the television channel offices from Andrei Beliakou, who has been fighting with the channel for the trademark for a long time. Three years ago, the Supreme Court forbade Belsat to use this name when broadcasting on the territory of Belarus and on the Internet page.

"I think Belyakov was pointed towards these addresses. And in general, I believe that in this case - this is the man whom the authorities use to deal with Belsat, to issue fines, to seize equipment," – Barys Haretski, the press secretary of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), says.

What was the judge afraid of?

According to the BAJ, since the case was politically motivated, the judge who conducted the first meeting was also changed. In place of Dzmitry Tsykala came Anastasia Papko, known for the issuance of convictions for protests against the decree on "parasites."

"In my opinion, Dzmitry Tsykala understood during the first trial that the case actually had a political connotation and there is a high probability of losing the possibility to travel to the European Union in the future, or losing the opportunity to obtain a European visa," – Haretski believes.

Today's verdict is one of many cases of pressure on Belsat.

This year alone, 45 administrative cases have been launched against journalists of this TV channel for allegedly "illegal production and distribution of media products." But neither this nor the confiscation of equipment cannot interfere with the work of the TV channel.

"In the future, this decision of the Pershamaiski District Court will be appealed in Minsk City Court and then in the Supreme Court and then in the International structure. We will continue working as Belsat. Apparently, these seizures, which occurred in March, did not significantly affect our work. Naturally, we feel lack of the expensive equipment that was seized from us," – Aliaksei Minchonak, a representative of Belsat in Belarus, summed up.