Larysa Shchyrakova

Affiliated media: Freelance journalist

Incident date: June 8, 2023

Attack type:

• Prosecution for extremism, links with terrorists, inciting hatred, high treason, calling for the overthrow of the constitutional order, rehabilitation of Nazism (2)

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Homel

Additional information:

It became known that the journalist Larysa Shchyrakova, who is kept in custody in the pre-trial detention centre as a criminal defendant, was tried twice under administrative article 19.11 (distribution, manufacture, storage, transportation of information products containing calls to extremist activities or propagandising such activities). The previous trial took place on June 8. Both cases were considered by the judge of the Homel District Court Andrey Suslo. Whether Larysa herself was present at the trials, as well as the court decisions are not yet known to the human rights activists. Shchyrakova was detained in the evening of December 6, 2022, after a search in her flat. A criminal case was brought against Larisa under Article 369-1 of the Criminal Code (discrediting the Republic of Belarus). She was placed in the Homel pre-trial detention centre. On August 31, 2023, Larisa was sentenced to three and a half years of imprisonment in a general regime colony.