Two More Journalists Charged In ‘BELTA Case’

They also signed the non-leave obligation.

On November 8, Halina Ulasik, the news editor of the agency tut.by, and the chief editor of the BelaPAN agency were officially charged in the so-called BelTA case. They also signed an obligation on non-leaving the place, and proper behavior, reports tut.by.

Halina Ulasik said that the charges were brought under Part 2 of Article 349 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (unauthorized access to computer information). The charges under the same article were also brought against Iryna Leushyna. The editor-in-chief of the BelaPAN was presented the damage - about BYN 12 thousand.

As it follows from the documents, the accused allegedly “deliberately out of mercenary and other personal interests committed unauthorized access to computer information stored in a computer system and the network of the Republican Unitary Enterprise BelTA, which resulted in causing other significant harm by negligence,” accompanied by a violation of the security system.

Important to note, on August 7, the offices of tut.by and BelaPAN companies were searched and arrested. Editor-in-Chief of tut.by Maryna Zolatava, editors of the portal Hanna Kaltygina, Halina Ulasik and Hanna Yermachonak, the Editor-in-Chief of BelaPAN Iryna Leushyna and the international commentator of the news agency Tatsiana Karavenkova, the correspondent of the Deutsche Welle Pavel Bykowski and the editor of the website of the newspaper Belarusians and the Market Aliaksei Zhukau were detained.

They all spent several days in the temporary detention center in the Akrestsin Street. On August 27, most of the suspects were banned from leaving the country.

Journalists and editors have been supported by the European Union, the Council of Europe, the United States, as well as by international human rights organizations.

On September 25, the editor of the portal tut.by Dzmitry Bobryk made a statement on his Facebook page. The journalist said that from the very beginning of the investigation into the “BelTA case” he was pressured, he was threatened with disclosing details of his personal life.