Belarus jails Belsat TV journalists for filming protest

A Belarus court has jailed two TV journalists for two years on charges of fomenting protests, for filming a rally against the country's leader.

Katerina Andreyeva, 27, and Daria Chultsova, 23, were arrested in a Minsk apartment block in November while live-streaming an unauthorised protest.

They are with Poland-based Belsat TV.

Mass protests took place across Belarus after Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a presidential election in August widely condemned as rigged.

Belsat TV rejected the accusation that by broadcasting footage of the demonstration the two journalists had disrupted bus services in the Belarusian capital.

Mr Lukashenko has been in power since 1994 and on Wednesday a man once seen as his main challenger went on trial.

Former banker Viktor Babaryko was barred from standing in the election and arrested in June. He is accused of taking bribes and money-laundering when he was head of Belgazprombank.

After the disputed August election the Belarus opposition organised huge demonstrations every Sunday, usually with more than 100,000 people thronging the streets of Minsk.

Western governments and human rights monitors condemned Mr Lukashenko's victory as fraudulent. The EU added him and his son Viktor to its sanctions blacklist of Belarus officials.

Belarus police cracked down harshly on the demonstrators - thousands were arrested and many were beaten up. There were also mass anti-Lukashenko protests in other Belarusian cities.

Investigators in the Belsat case alleged that the TV journalists, who filmed from the 14th floor of an apartment block on 15 November, had encouraged disorder which halted 13 bus services and also blocked trolleybus and tram lines.

Belsat reports that the transport routes specified did not include the square where the journalists were filming.

Critics see the trial as part of a general crackdown on independent media in Belarus.