Editor-in-Chief of the Belarusian News Agency «BelaPAN» Iryna Levshina has been released. According to the human rights center «Vyasna», she was released on December 7, 2024.
«Hello all friends! On December 7, I safely left the IK-4, having served 3 years, 3 months and 3 weeks behind bars. Since I intend to stay in Belarus, any comments from my side, as you understand, are impossible. I will only say that everything is fine with my health, with my mood — too. I am getting used to freedom, fortunately, to being close to my family, to a normal life. Thank you to everyone who was worried about me all this time, I felt your support from a distance», — Levshina herself wrote on her Facebook page.
Let us recall that Iryna Levshina was detained on August 18, 2021. She was charged under Part 1 of Art. 361-1 of the Criminal Code («creation or leadership of an extremist formation»). At the same time, the State Security Committee recognized the first independent news agency of Belarus «BelaPAN» as an «extremist formation» only three months after Levshyna's arrest, in November 2021.
In October 2022, verdicts were handed down in the «BelaPAN case»: Iryna Levshyna was sentenced to 4 years in prison, the agency's former CEO Dmitry Novozhilov — to 6 years, journalist, media manager Andrey Alexandrov — up to 14 years, and the latter's wife, sociologist Irina Zlobina, up to 9 years in prison.
Olexandrov and Novozhilov were accused of «creating and operating an extremist group», as well as failing to pay taxes on the activities of the news agency in the amount of 200 thousand dollars. Aleksandrova and Zlobinia were initially charged with «preparing individuals to participate in mass riots», and later also charged with «high treason».
In March 2024, the Minsk Commercial Court finally liquidated «BelaPAN».