Two journalists have been thrown in jail in Belarus for video-streaming protests against the country’s dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
According to Mediazona Belarus news outlet, the Frunzenskiy District Court of Minsk ruled on Feb. 18 to put Belsat TV journalists Kateryna Andreeva and Daria Chultsova in jail for two years.
The two were accused of “organizing actions that grossly violate the public order,” Mediazona reports. Neither Andreeva nor Chultsova agreed with the accusations.
The journalists were detained in November when they were streaming an anti-Lukashenko protest in Minsk. The protest was commemorating Roman Bondarenko, a 31-year-old opposition activist who died after being severely beaten by masked men believed to be law enforcers.
The protest took place on Nov. 15 at the “Square of Change” in Minsk, a courtyard where Bondarenko lived.
According to the prosecution, Chultsova and Andreeva were supporting the “unauthorized event, thereby encouraging people to participate in it,” and encouraging car drivers to block the streets, Mediazona reports.
Chultsova and Andreeva insisted that they did not violate the law, and were doing their job as journalists. Andreeva said that the criminal prosecution is “a primitive act of revenge by the law enforcement for performing her professional activities.”
The court found the journalists guilty and ruled to put them behind bars for two years and confiscate the equipment they used to stream the protest.
Pro-democracy rallies have been taking place across Belarus regularly following the presidential election on Aug. 9, which is largely believed to have been rigged in favor of incumbent president Lukashenko.
Lukashenko has been the president of Belarus for 26 years. Ukraine, the European Union and the United States don’t recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus.
Since August, every week, thousands of people take to the streets to protest Lukashenko and demand a fair election.
They suffer from aggressive crackdowns by riot police. Opposition activists, journalists and protesters have faced persecution, arrests, detentions and torture.
Read more: Belarus protests turn violent, Tikhanovskaya flees country under pressure
Multiple videos published through local channels on the Telegram messenger app showed police beating unarmed demonstrators.
According to Viasna human rights organization, over 33,000 Belarus citizens were detained since the start of the election campaign in May.
While most of them were soon freed or received 15 days of jail time for participating in the protests, some — including opposition leaders, well-known activists and journalists — remain behind bars.
Read more: Hundreds of Belarusian techies find refuge in Ukraine as Belarus protests continue
