Human Rights

Prisoner of Conscience: Dzianis Ivashyn, Belarus

Dzianis Ivashyn is an investigative journalist, based in Hrodna, Belarus. He works for Novy Chas, an independent outlet, and he is an editor of the local site of the international investigative project InformNapalm.

In 2020 he started publishing a series of articles, focusing on some former members of the Ukrainian Special Forces who had served under President Viktor Yanukovych. Later they fled the country and were hired by the Belarusian riot police.

Shortly after the story ran, officers from the KGB, the Belarusian secret services, arrested him. They searched not only his apartment but also the houses of his mother and grandmother.

Since he was detained, the journalist has been placed in solitary confinement several times and even suffered a heart attack in prison, according to reports by Belarusian media.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists called for Ivashyn’s release and urged the United Nations to appeal to the Belarusian government to “immediately stop the political persecution” of him. But things went from bad to worse. Since the start of the trial, all hearings have been held behind closed doors.

Despite multiple calls from Belarusian and international human rights advocates, in September 2022 a Belarusian court sentenced the journalist to 13 years in jail for treason and for interfering with police officers. The court fined him a total of 18,000 rubles (around 6,740 euros), to be paid to nine people whom the court did not identify.

“The charges against him appear to be entirely fabricated and designed to terrorize independent journalists and discourage them from pursuing their work in Belarus,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna,  program director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, in a statement following the verdict. “Belarusian authorities must not contest Ivashyn’s appeal and release him immediately, along with all other jailed members of the press.”

Belarus is one of the worst places in the world to be a journalist. Since the 2020 wave of protests demanding the resignation of Alexander Lukashenko, the long-serving president of the country whose authoritative measures are condemned by the international community, many journalists have been jailed, beaten, and even tortured by his regime. According to research conducted by the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least ten Belarusian journalists were behind bars at the end of 2021. Moreover, Lukashenko has persecuted and tried to silence a number of independent publications and journalists in the country.

Disclaimer: As of December 12, 2022, research shows that Dzianis Ivashyn is still in custody, serving his sentence.

Prisoners of Conscience from East and Southeast Europe

We feature select few prisoners of conscience out of the many in East and Southeast Europe. One political prisoner is one too many. 

Find out who the other political prisoners are #PrisonersofConscience  #FreeThemAll and in the special Focus on our website.