A court in Minsk sentenced journalist “KP” Mozheyko to three years in prison

The court in Minsk sentenced the former correspondent of “Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus” Gennady Mozheyko to three years in prison. As reported by the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty, he was found guilty of insulting Alexander Lukashenko and inciting social enmity.

According to the investigation, Mozheyko “showed an immoral interest in extremist activity” and “acted out of political and ideological enmity.” Mozheyko pleaded not guilty in court.

Mozheyko was the author of an article about the programmer Andrei Zeltser, who died in a shootout with Belarusian KGB officers in his apartment. One of the KGB officers was also killed in the shootout. The article contained positive words about Seltser from his classmate – and she evaluated the personality of the murdered man, not his actions. The article hung on the website of “Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus” for only a few minutes, but the authorities blocked the site, and then the publication of the printed edition was stopped.

Fearing persecution due to the authorities’ reaction to the article, Mozheyko left Belarus for Russia, where he wanted to fly abroad. At the airport, however, he was reportedly detained by FSB officers, after which he was taken to the territory of Belarus, where he was placed in a pre-trial detention center. Representatives of the law enforcement agencies of Belarus denied that Mozheyko was detained in Russia, saying that he was detained in Minsk. The now late editor-in-chief of “Komsomolskaya Pravda” Vladimir Sungorkin claimed that formally Mozheyko was not detained in Russia, but FSB officers actually forced him to board a plane in Moscow, not to Warsaw, where he was going, but back to Minsk.

The accusation of insulting Lukashenko concerns a line that sounds on the recording of a meeting of one of the deputies with citizens – according to the investigation, it was uttered by Mozheyko, which the journalist himself denies.

Taking into account the time spent in pre-trial detention center, Mozheyko should be released after nine months.