Sergey Chabotska

Affiliated media: s13.ru, Editor

Incident date: October 31, 2025

Attack type:

• community service, ban on certain activities and other punishment following a criminal case

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Hrodna

Additional information:

The Hrodna Regional Court sentenced Sergey Chabotska, the owner and editor of the portal s13.ru, to three years and six months’ imprisonment, to be served in a high-security penal colony, and imposed a fine of 1,000 base units ((equivalent to roughly €300). Judge Yury Kazakevich found Chabotska guilty under two articles of the Criminal Code: Part 1 of Article 361-1 (establishing an extremist formation or participation in it) and Part 2 of Article 367 (defamation of the President of the Republic of Belarus). The Hrodna portal s13.ru operated as a news aggregator. It existed for 19 years until the Belarusian authorities arrested its owner and designated the resource as “extremist”.