Valeryia Kastsiuhova

Affiliated media: Our Opinion, Editor

Incident date: February 6, 2023

Attack type:

• Court trial

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Minsk

Additional information:

The Minsk City Court started to consider the criminal case against journalist Valeryia Kastsiuhova. She is charged under three criminal articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus: Article 361 (calls for actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus), Article 357 (conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means), and Article 130 (incitement of hatred or discord). Kastsiuhova was detained on June 30, 2021, after a search in her flat, placed in a temporary detention centre, then transferred to the detention centre № 1 in Minsk. She was held in custody until the trial. Valeryia Kastsiuhova is a political analyst, founder and editor of the expert community website Our Opinion, editor and author of Belarusian Yearbook and head of the expert group for monitoring Belarus in Focus. On March 17, the Minsk City Court sentenced Valeryia Kastsiuhova to 10 years of imprisonment.