Belarus journalist is convicted of treason and jailed for 10 years as crackdown on dissent continues

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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian journalist was convicted of treason and revealing state secrets and was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a closed trial, a media group said Friday, the eve of the fifth anniversary of a disputed election that kept authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko in power and unleashed mass protests.

Danil Palianski, who worked for several independent news agencies, was sentenced on July 25, but the trial's outcome was only revealed Friday by the Belarusian Association of Journalists. In addition to the prison sentence, Palianski was fined the equivalent of about $7,000.

“Belarus has already become the black hole of Europe, where people are judged for words and thoughts,” said BAJ leader Andrei Bastunets.

Palianski, who was detained in September, is one of 37 journalists behind bars in Belarus.

His jailing is part of a sustained crackdown on government critics after unprecedented mass protests following Lukashenko's disputed election on Aug. 9, 2020. Human rights groups say authorities have arrested more than 65,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more have fled the country in fear of persecution.

There are about 1,187 political prisoners in Belarus, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate and peace activist Ales Bialiatski, according to the human rights group Viasna, which he founded.