The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has strongly condemned the sentencing of Belarusian journalist Ihar Ilyash to four years in prison and a fine of 4,200 rubles (about US$1,240), handed down by the Minsk City Court on September 16, on charges including promoting “extremist activities” and “discrediting the Republic of Belarus.”
The sentencing follows a prolonged trial that began in February 2025, during which the court repeatedly delayed proceedings. In one major delay, the court ordered a “psycholinguistic examination” of 15 of Ilyash’s analytical articles. These were analyzed by Siarhei Liebiadzinski, head of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language at Belarusian State University, rather than through a standard state expertise center.
Ilyash, who was detained in October 2024, rejected all the charges and maintained his innocence in court. State media accuses him of giving interviews to independent outlets that Belarus authorities have labeled “extremist formations,” and of providing commentary to Ukrainian publications about Belarus’s role in the war in Ukraine.
Human rights organisations—including CPJ and the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ)—have denounced the trial as a politically motivated suppression of free expression. While the expert analysis of Ilyash’s articles revealed no false factual information, it claimed political bias on the part of the author, a charge that critics argue is being used to criminalize dissent.
CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Gulnoza Said, remarked that the sentencing of Ilyash is yet another sign that the repression of the press in Belarus remains ongoing. She called on Belarusian authorities to immediately release Ilyash and all other imprisoned journalists.
This case comes amid a broader crackdown on independent media in Belarus, especially following the disputed 2020 presidential election, after which authorities adopted and increasingly applied harsh “extremism” legislation to silence opposition voices and critical journalism. As of mid-September 2025, Belarus remains one of the countries in Europe with the highest number of jailed journalists.
