Belarus sentences exiled blogger Anton Matolka to 20 years in prison in absentia

A Belaru­sian court has sen­tenced promi­nent exiled blog­ger Anton Matol­ka to 20 years in prison and a fine of approx­i­mate­ly €24,820 in absen­tia. The ver­dict was issued by the Hrod­na Region­al Court and announced by the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office on June 3. The deci­sion is not yet final and may be appealed.

Belarus blog­ger Anton Matol­ka

The tri­al began on Decem­ber 14, 2024, and was presided over by Judge Ihar Sobalieu. Since Matol­ka has been liv­ing in exile since 2020, the case was tried under a spe­cial in absen­tia pro­ce­dure for fugi­tives.

Matol­ka, a media strate­gist and founder of sev­er­al Telegram chan­nels — includ­ing the wide­ly fol­lowed Belarus­ki Hajun, a now-banned mon­i­tor­ing project that tracked mil­i­tary activ­i­ty — was charged under 13 arti­cles of the Belaru­sian Crim­i­nal Code. These includ­ed attempt­ing an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al seizure of pow­er, orga­niz­ing mass unrest, incit­ing social hatred, insult­ing and slan­der­ing the pres­i­dent, spread­ing dis­in­for­ma­tion, and state trea­son.

In its state­ment, the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office claimed:

“In May 2020, the accused orga­nized and led a con­spir­a­cy to seize state pow­er uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly… Dur­ing and after the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, he orches­trat­ed mass riots and pub­lic dis­or­der… called for the over­throw of the gov­ern­ment through Telegram chan­nels under his con­trol… spread infor­ma­tion dis­cred­it­ing the Repub­lic of Belarus… threat­ened vio­lence and insult­ed state offi­cials… and ulti­mate­ly com­mit­ted state trea­son.”

The Belaru­sian gov­ern­ment began tar­get­ing Matol­ka fol­low­ing his cov­er­age of the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion protests, which were bru­tal­ly sup­pressed by secu­ri­ty forces. He fled the coun­try short­ly after the vote, cit­ing threats to his safe­ty and fear of polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed pros­e­cu­tion.

In March 2021, Belarus’s Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee placed him on an inter­state want­ed list, and the KGB added him to its reg­istry of indi­vid­u­als alleged­ly involved in ter­ror­ist activ­i­ties a month lat­er. By 2022, the Inte­ri­or Min­istry had offi­cial­ly des­ig­nat­ed the fol­low­ers of his Telegram chan­nels “Belarus­ki Hajun” and “Matolka­Po­mo­gi” as extrem­ist for­ma­tions.

Matol­ka is a well-known civ­il soci­ety fig­ure in Belarus. In 2016, he was award­ed “Media/Journalist of the Year” at the Civ­il Soci­ety Cham­pi­ons Awards host­ed by the Assem­bly of NGOs for his report­ing on the non-gov­ern­men­tal sec­tor.

React­ing to his place­ment on the want­ed list, Matol­ka said in 2021:

“I’m ready to be held account­able for all my actions — in a new Belarus.”