Journalist Volha Radzivonava added to Belarus’ “extremist” list

Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va, a jour­nal­ist who was sen­tenced in Decem­ber of last year, has been added to the Belaru­sian Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs’ list of indi­vid­u­als “con­nect­ed to extrem­ist activ­i­ties.”

Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va

This update, which appeared on March 7, con­firmed that the sen­tence hand­ed down by the Min­sk City Court has now come into effect for the free­lancer who col­lab­o­rat­ed with both Belaru­sian and for­eign media out­lets.

Radzivon­a­va, who has been active in jour­nal­ism, attempt­ed to appeal her sen­tence, but the Supreme Court of Belarus dis­missed her appeal on Feb­ru­ary 7. Supreme Court Judge Edhar Mart­sir­asyan upheld the orig­i­nal rul­ing.

On Decem­ber 10, 2024, Judge Vera Halauko­va of the Min­sk City Court sen­tenced Radzivon­a­va to four years in prison. In addi­tion to her prison sen­tence, the court imposed a fine of $1,150. Radzivon­a­va was also ordered to for­feit income that the inves­ti­ga­tion claimed was “earned through crim­i­nal means.”

The charges against Radzivon­a­va includ­ed defama­tion and incite­ment. Specif­i­cal­ly, she was accused of:

• Libel­ing the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Belarus,
• Dis­cred­it­ing the Repub­lic of Belarus,
• Incit­ing racial, nation­al, reli­gious, or oth­er social hos­til­i­ty,
• Insult­ing the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Belarus.

The Case and Detention

Radzivon­a­va was detained by secu­ri­ty forces on March 7, 2024, and soon after, she was placed in pre-tri­al deten­tion on crim­i­nal charges. In the days that fol­lowed, the Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion added two arti­cles from the Ger­man news­pa­per Die Tageszeitung to Belarus’ list of extrem­ist con­tent.

Dur­ing her deten­tion at the remand cen­ter, Radzivon­a­va was sub­ject­ed to a psy­chi­atric exam­i­na­tion. It is also known that her moth­er, who is over 80 years old, requires con­stant care.

Radzivon­a­va, who pre­vi­ous­ly worked as a free­lancer with both Belaru­sian and inter­na­tion­al media out­lets, was rec­og­nized by the human rights com­mu­ni­ty as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er on Octo­ber 30, 2024.

This devel­op­ment marks an ongo­ing crack­down on inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism and polit­i­cal dis­sent in Belarus, with Radzivonava’s case serv­ing as one of many in a grow­ing list of jour­nal­ists and activists fac­ing legal per­se­cu­tion.