Aksana Kolb

Affiliated media: Novy Chas , Journalist, Former editor-in-chief

Incident date: November 13, 2025

Attack type:

• Court trial

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Minsk

Additional information:

It has emerged that the Volozhyn District Court of the Minsk Region has increased the sentence of journalist and former editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Novy Chas”, Aksana Kolb. She was originally convicted in 2022 but was able to leave Belarus. Instead of the previous sentence of two years and six months of restricted freedom with placement in an open-type correctional facility, Kolb has now been sentenced to one year, one month, and three days of imprisonment to be served in a high-security correctional colony. The journalist is living in forced exile and learned of the sentence during a phone call from a police officer. It has also emerged that in 2023, new criminal cases were opened against Kolb under Part 1 of Article 361–4 of the Belarusian Criminal Code (“Assisting extremist activity”) and Part 1 of Article 342 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Organisation or preparation of actions grossly violating public order, or active participation in them”).