Volha Loyka

Affiliated media: TUT.BY, Former employee

Incident date: October 11, 2022

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, Minsk

Additional information:

KGB added former TUT.BY journalists Volha Loyka and Alena Talkachova to the list of «persons involved in terrorist activities». Their names appeared in the latest version of the list on the KGB website. It also says that Loyka and Talkachova are charged under articles 130 (incitement of hatred) and 361 (calls for sanctions and other actions aimed at harming state security) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. These charges against the journalists were previously unknown. The articles provide for up to 12 years in prison. Loyka, former editor-in-chief of the political and economic news block of TUT.BY, and journalist Alena Talkachova were detained on the day of the shutdown of the portal; on May 18, 2021, they were taken together with TUT.BY management to the detention center. Loyka was released in March 2022, and Talkachova — in July, both remained defendants in the criminal case.