In Belarus, a convicted journalist had eight more months in prison added to his three-year sentence

In Belarus, journalist Igor Karney, who was sentenced to three years in a penal colony, was given eight months more – for disobeying the requirements of the penal colony administration (Part 1 of Article 411 of the Criminal Code), writes the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty.

For what violations Karney was charged with «disobedience», is unknown. Previously, the journalist was sent to a cell-type facility (PKT) several times. Karney was first placed in the PKT in the summer. The isolation period was supposed to end in August, but later it became known that the prisoner never returned to his unit in the colony.

«He will remain in the PKT until the end of January 2025. Calls are prohibited to him, he will not receive a parcel with warm clothes, one has already been returned, the parcel will be delivered only in six months. Sometimes he writes letters», – a source from the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty told us.

The source also reported that the journalist in the PKT has 30 minutes to walk.

The Human Rights Center «Vyasna» recognized Igor Karney as a political prisoner.

In March 2024, a court in Minsk sentenced Karney to three years in prison and a fine of 20,000 Belarusian rubles (more than six thousand dollars) in a case of participation in an extremist community. The pro-government newspaper «Belarus Today» wrote that he was accused of collaborating with the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which in March 2023 was recognized as an «extremist formation».

On the day the trial in this case began, European diplomats, including from Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, came to the courthouse in solidarity with Igor Karney and «others convicted for political reasons». They called for their immediate release.

56-year-old Igor Karney – a former correspondent for the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty. He is also known as the author of texts about the cultural and historical heritage of Belarus and a travel blogger. With the new sentence, Karney will be released only in October 2026.

According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, as of early November, 35 media representatives were in prison in Belarus. As noted in its report by «Reporters Without Borders», 40 Belarusian journalists are imprisoned.