US hits Belarusian officers with journey bans for crackdown | Europe Information

US secretary of state declares sanctions on 43 Belarusian nationals hours after two journalists are sentenced.

The USA on Thursday imposed journey restrictions on 43 Belarusian nationals recognized as participating in President Alexander Lukashenko’s “crackdown” on protesters and journalists.

The US motion was introduced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an announcement that adopted the sentencing Thursday of two journalists who had livestreamed a massive protest in Minsk in November.

Katsiaryna Bakhvalava, age 27, and Daria Chultsova, 23, each of the Polish-funded Belsat TV channel had been sentenced to 2 years in jail protecting the protest.

The State Division additionally famous raids by Belarusian authorities on February 16 on Vyasna, an affiliation of journalists, and on impartial commerce union staff.

Blinken’s assertion mentioned the US “stays alarmed by the Lukashenka regime’s persevering with violent crackdown on peaceable protesters, pro-democracy activists, and journalists”.

The sanctions limiting journey to the US apply to “high-ranking justice sector officers, regulation enforcement leaders and rank-and-file personnel who detained and abused peaceable demonstrators”, Blinken’s assertion mentioned.

As well as, judges and prosecutors concerned in sentencing protesters and journalists, in addition to tutorial directors who threatened college students for participation in protests had been additionally sanctioned.

Greater than 33,000 individuals have been detained in a violent crackdown on protests towards Lukashenko’s rule following a contested election final August that his opponents have mentioned was rigged to increase his rule, in response to the Reuters information service.

The crackdown has prompted Western international locations to impose new sanctions on Minsk. Lukashenko has refused to step down, buttressed by assist from Moscow, which sees Belarus as a buffer state towards the European Union and NATO.

Beforehand, Washington had expanded sanctions on Belarus, focusing on 4 entities and 40 people for his or her roles within the disputed presidential election and the federal government’s subsequent arrests of protesters.

The 2 journalists – Bakhvalava, who additionally goes by the final identify of Andreyeva, and Chultsova – had been arrested in November after police broke down the door of a Minsk condo the place they had been broadcasting a livestream of an illustration within the Belarusian capital.

Journalists Katsiaryna Andreyeva, proper, and Daria Chultsova stand inside a defendants’ cage in a courtroom in Minsk, Belarus, because the court docket sentenced the 2 feminine journalists to 2 years in jail for protecting a protest towards the nation’s authoritarian president [AP Photo]

Addressing the court docket earlier than the decision, Bakhvalava promised to proceed working for “constructing a Belarus that received’t have political repressions”, in response to The Related Press.

“I’m not pleading. I’m demanding acquittal for me and my colleagues,” she mentioned, referring to different jailed journalists.

The 2 had been charged with “organising actions rudely violating public order” – accusations they denied.

In the meantime, a trial started Wednesday in Belarus for a financial institution govt who had aspired to problem Lukashenko in final yr’s election however was blocked from operating on account of prison costs.

Viktor Babariko, 57, the previous head of Russia-owned Belgazprombank, has been jailed since June on corruption and cash laundering costs. He has dismissed the accusations, saying they had been meant to stop him from difficult Lukashenko.