Belarusian freelance journalist Ihar Ilyash is serving a four-year prison sentence after being convicted on September 16, 2025, on charges of promoting “extremist” activities and “discrediting” Belarus. The court also fined Ilyash 4,200 Belarusian rubles (US$1,240).
On October 22, the pro-government Telegram channel Kniga GU “BAZA” published a video in which Ilyash said he worked with banned Poland-based independent broadcaster Belsat TV and gave interviews to media outlets that Belarus has labeled “extremist groups.”
“Because of this, I’m detained,” Ilyash said in the video.
The Telegram channel said in the caption accompanying the video that Ilyash “was involved in promoting extremist groups and collecting information for foreign intelligence services” with his wife, Belsat TV journalist Katsiaryna Andreyeva.
Andreyeva has been detained since November 2020, when she was arrested while reporting live in Minsk, the capital, on mass protests demanding President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s resignation. Authorities labeled Belsat TV as “extremist” in July 2021.
Authorities have previously detained Ilyash multiple times in connection with his work.
Ilyash’s trial started on February 21 and was suspended for months pending the “psycholinguistic examination” of 15 of the journalist’s unspecified reports. Ilyash denied the charges.
CPJ’s emails to the Belarusian Investigative Committee, the country’s law enforcement agency responsible for investigating crimes, in late 2024 and September 2025 for comment on the charges against Ilyash did not receive any reply.