(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed the release on parole of Nikolai Markevich, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper “Pagonya”, on 4 March 2003. The organisation has also stressed that it was unacceptable that there were still constraints on his freedom. RSF also reiterated its call for the release of “Pagonya” reporter Pavel Majeiko and Viktor Ivaskevich, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed the release on parole of Nikolai Markevich, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper “Pagonya”, on 4 March 2003. The organisation has also stressed that it was unacceptable that there were still constraints on his freedom. RSF also reiterated its call for the release of “Pagonya” reporter Pavel Majeiko and Viktor Ivaskevich, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper “Rabochy”, both of whom are still serving sentences of hard labour for “insulting and defaming” President Alexander Lukashenko.
“Letting Nikolai Markevich go home was the least [the authorities] could do,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said. “Neither he nor any other journalist should ever have been given a prison sentence for expressing their opinion,” Ménard said, while also protesting the fact that two other journalists are still imprisoned in Belarus simply for doing their job.
“Nikolai Markevich should not only be out on parole, but should be completely free to his job as an editor, just as Pavel Majeiko and Viktor Ivaskevich should be released immediately and without conditions,” Ménard said. RSF also demanded the repeal of Articles 367, 368 and 369 of the Criminal Code, under which the journalists were jailed. These articles, which provide for up to five years’ imprisonment for “insulting and defaming the president” are an “aberration,” Ménard said.
On 4 March, a court in Osipovichi (south of Minsk) ruled that Markevich could return to his home in Grodno, near the Polish border, subject to his submitting to regular judicial controls, finding a job and paying 15 per cent of his salary to the state for the next 12 months. He had been serving an 18-month sentence of hard labour in internal exile in Osipovichi since 1 September 2002. He was convicted for carrying reports in the 4 September 2001 issue of “Pagonya” accusing President Lukashenko of involvement in the disappearances of government opponents, including journalist Dmitri Zavadski (see IFEX alerts of 19 and 4 July, 3 April and 18 March 2002, among others).
Since 1 September, Majeiko has been serving a sentence of one year of hard labour in the southern city of Zhlobin for criticising the president in an article published in “Pagonya” in September 2001. The Supreme Court upheld his conviction in February.
Ivaskevich has been serving a two-year sentence of hard labour since 16 December 2002. He was convicted of defaming the president in an article that appeared in a special issue of his newspaper in the summer of 2001 on the elections. The offending article, entitled “A Thief’s Place is in Prison”, accused the president of corruption.
