Olga Loiko

Affiliated media: TUT.BY, Former journalist

Incident date: February 4, 2025

Attack type:

• Court trial

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Zerkalo

Location: Belarus, Minsk

Additional information:

The Minsk City Court has begun hearing the criminal case against former employees of the TUT.BY portal: Olga Loiko, Yelena Tolkacheva, and Yekaterina Tkachenko. The trial held in absentia, as the defendants are outside Belarus. They face charges under four articles of the Belarusian Criminal Code: Part 1 of Article 342 (organisation or participation in mass riots); Part 2 of Article 243 (tax evasion); Part 3 of Article 361 (causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus); and Part 3 of Article 130 (incitement of social enmity or hatred). It should be recalled that TUT.BY employees Yelena Tolkacheva and Olga Loyko were detained on 18 May 2021 in connection with the criminal case against LLC “TUT.BY Media”. They were later released from pre-trial detention after their preventive measures were changed. Tolkacheva, Loyko, and Tkachenko did not attend the trial in Minsk, which began on 9 January 2023, in the so-called “TUT.BY case”.