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A journalist who formerly worked in Ukraine has gone on trial in Belarus on what he and his supporters say are trumped up charges designed to silence an opponent of the authoritarian regime in Minsk.
The trial of Belarusian-Ukrainian journalist Dzmitry Halko began at Minsk’s Soviet District Court on July 10.
Halko, a former fixer for the Times of London, a freelancer for the Kyiv Post, and a journalist for Belarusian opposition publications, was arrested by Belarusian authorities in April after returning from Ukraine. He now faces up to six years in jail on charges that he used violence against police officers.
He denies the accusations and believes the case to be fabricated and political.
Belarus has had strict censorship of the media since dictator Alexander Lukashenko came to power in 1994. Independent news sites BelaPAN, naviny.by, onliner.by, and Khartia 97 have all been blocked by the Belarusian authorities in recent years. Meanwhile, many journalists have been arrested, jailed, or killed under Lukashenko’s rule.
One of the police officers questioned by the court on July 10, Yuriy Chirkov, claimed that Halko had hit his arm and the officer’s phone had fallen on the ground.
The officer said he had filed a 1000 Belarusian ruble claim against Halko for the alleged damage to his body and property, including the phone.
Chirkov changed the testimony that he had given last year: then he claimed that he had been hit by Halko and fallen on the ground. But on July 10 he denied having fallen on the ground and said he had forced Halko’s son Yan to lie on the ground.
The second police officer questioned by the court, Vadim Kazakovsky, did not confirm the first officer’s claim that he had been hit by Halko. He said he had not seen it.
Kazakovsky said he did not insist on severe punishment for Halko but filed a 20 ruble claim for a coat that had allegedly been torn by Halko.
Halko later asked the judge to delay the hearing because he felt bad since he had not eaten since the morning. The police and prosecutor did not object but the judge refused.
November incident
Last November Halko was in Minsk to celebrate his son Yan’s birthday. Police officers later arrived at Halko’s apartment, claiming that they had received a complaint about noise. Halko and his son then got into an argument with the officers, and an entire police squad broke into the apartment to arrest both Halko and his son. Several teenagers had to jump out of the apartment windows during the raid, causing one of them to break his leg and another one to break his spine.
Halko’s former wife Olga Kravchuk still worked as the webmaster of the Belarusian Partisan, an opposition publication, at the time of the raid. The police were most likely hoping to gain access to the publication’s site from his apartment as part of a crackdown on the news site before it was shut down by Belarusian authorities in December, according to Halko.
Halko’s family
Dzmitry Halko’s son Yan may be sent to a juvenile detention facility if the authorities press charges against him. Yan was beaten several months ago by unknown assailants, Kravchuk said.
The administration of Yan’s school had constantly harassed him due to his opposition views prior to the November police raid, which also included another case brought against him by the authorities who accused Yan of spreading pornography, according to Kravchuk.
The Belarusian authorities have threatened to take Yan from his family and send him to a state orphanage, Kravchuk said. Two friends of Yan’s, who used to live in his apartment, had already been taken from their parents by force and sent to a Belarusian state orphanage.
Halko’s elder son, Andrey, has been extradited from Russia and will now be tried in a Belarusian court on exhibitionism charges.
Meanwhile, recently Halko’s friend and independent economist Sergei Chaly was beaten by unknown assailants.
Halko’s background
Halko has always been an active participant in protests against Lukashenko’s dictatorship. He had been arrested on numerous occasions for his opposition activities – most recently in 2017.
He became an editor and journalist at the Belarusian Partisan online newspaper in 2016 and transformed it into one of the most opposition-minded and critical media outlets in Belarus. The Belarusian Partisan was founded by Pavlo Sheremet, a Belarusian-Ukrainian journalist who was killed by a car bomb in Kyiv in 2016.
Halko, known for his pro-Ukrainian and liberal views, also covered Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution and Russia’s war against Ukraine for the Novy Chas online newspaper from 2013 to 2015.
He has lived alternately in Minsk and the Ukrainian city of Mariupol since 2014. Previously, he had also lived in Russia.
