Overview
Belarusian journalist Ihar Karnei has been serving a three-year sentence after being convicted in March 2024 on charges of participating in an extremist group. He was arrested in July 2023.
Karnei formerly freelanced with Radio Svaboda, the Belarus service of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Belarusian authorities have jailed an increasing number of journalists for their work since 2020, when the country was wracked by mass protests over the disputed reelection of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Arrest and detention
On July 17, 2023, authorities in Minsk searched Karnei’s home, detained him, and ordered him to be held for 10 days, according to a Facebook post by his daughter Palina Karnei and multiple media reports. Karnei spent 10 days in Akrestina temporary detention center before being transferred to Valadarskaha, a pretrial detention center in the capital, Minsk, Karnei’s wife told CPJ.
Karnei’s daughter told independent news website Mediazona that day that her father was facing criminal charges, but authorities did not disclose the reason for Karnei’s detention. Police seized computers and phones during the search of his apartment, media reports said.
On March 22, 2024, a court in Minsk sentenced Karnei to three years in prison and a fine of 20,000 rubles (US$6,115) on charges of participating in an extremist group.
Karnei’s trial opened on March 19, and he was found guilty three days later, according to the banned human rights group Viasna and the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an advocacy and trade group operating from exile, which called for his immediate release.
State-owned newspaper Belarus Segodnya said that Karnei had collaborated with the BAJ, which was the largest independent media association in Belarus until it was dissolved in 2021 and labeled an extremist group in 2023. The indictment said that Karnei wrote “negative materials insulting the head of state” and others and gave “a false picture” of Belarus, the newspaper added.
Karnei is being held at Prison No. 17 in the city of Shklow in the central eastern part of the country, according to Viasna.
On November 28, Viasna reported that Karnei was additionally charged with Article 411, Part 1 of the country’s criminal code, for allegedly disobeying the prison’s administration.
On December 13, a court in Shklow sentenced him to eight additional months in prison on those new charges, according to BAJ, though there was no information about which of the prison's requirements Karnei was accused of disobeying,
Karnei is being kept in a solitary cell and is deprived of phone calls and parcels, and his family receives one out of four letters he sends, his wife Inna told CPJ, adding that he sometimes complains of the heart condition tachycardia, but has no chronic diseases.
“He hasn't lost his sense of humor or his optimism,” she said. “He's a tough guy.”
In late 2024, CPJ emailed the Belarusian Investigative Committee but did not receive any replies.