“Pagonya” Journalists’ Appeal Against Sentence to Be Heard August 15 :: Charter'97 :: News

They appointed a date for hearing an appeal of the “Pagonya” journalists Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mozheiko – they set the date as August 15, at 9.30a.m. in the Grodno regional court. On June 24, 2002 the Leninsky district court of Grodno sentenced the editor-in-chief of the closed by the authorities newspaper “Pagonya” Nikolai Markevich to 2,5 years of freedom restriction, while the newspaper’s journalist Pavel Mozheiko – to two years under article 367(2) of the Criminal Code.

The journalists were accused of publishing false data, defaming Alexander Lukashenko’s honor and dignity, whom they had allegedly charged with committing heavy crimes. The materials in question were published in the 36th issue of September 4, 2001, which had never reached the readers’ audience, but had been seized by the authorities. The articles were dedicated to the presidential elections and called into question the chance for Lukashenko’s re-election owing to the spreading data about his implication in a death squad – criminal gang, responsible for abducting the regime’s opponents.

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