Journalist Ales Leuchuk to stand trial in Brest

Independent journalist Ales Leuchuk will stand trial in Brest today. The string correspondent of the information company BelaPAN is accused of cooperation with the satellite TV channel Belsat without accreditation.

The administrative case was started against Ales Leuchuk on June 23. According to the Constitution, he has the right to collect and distribute information, Leuchuk claims. Furthermore, he is a BelaPAN reporter and the agency can sell reports to anyone.

The case was started for Lauchuk’s report about the achievements of well-known Belarusian football player Raman Valisyuk shown on Belsat. Vasilyuk did not refute the fact and told the police that he did not think that there was anything bad about it.

Another case was started against the journalist on June 24. He made a report about the notorious religious conflict in Belavezhski agro-town, the BAJ press service reports.

Ales Leuchuk has already been persecuted for working without accreditation before: he was fined for 40 base amounts (Br6 million) at the end of 2014 and for 21 base amounts (Br3 million 780 thousand) in March 2015. The second trial was held in the freelance journalist’s absence.

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