Belarusian journalist Yavgen Merkis sentenced to 4 years in prison

On May 30, the Gomel Regional Court sentenced journalist and historian Yavgen Merkis to four years in a strict regime prison. According to human rights defenders and friends of the journalist, the accusations are related to sending photos of Russian military equipment to ‘extremist resources,’ reports the opposition Belarusian Association of Journalists.

The trial was held behind closed doors. The last speech by Yavgen Merkis was also not made public. It is not known whether he admitted his guilt. A non-disclosure agreement was taken from the lawyer. Only the announcement of the verdict was made public. Yavgen was cheerful and looked good.

According to the court’s decision, photo, video equipment and other media means were confiscated from Yavgen Merkis in favor of the state.

Before the court’s verdict, the journalist had spent nine months behind bars at a pretrial detention center. The court counts one day of stay in the pretrial detention center as one and a half days in the colony. Security forces detained him on September 13, 2022. Then a search was conducted at the journalist’s residence, and his information carriers were seized. His father’s house and his friends’ houses were searched as well.

The human rights community recognized Yavgen Merkis as a political prisoner.

In March, after the end of the investigation, Yavgen had a short-term meeting with his relatives. He did not complain about his health, although he caught colds several times. In December, he spent four days in solitary confinement. He was punished with stricter conditions of detention for the fact that he allegedly did not shave.

Even before his arrest, Yavgen Merkis ceased his journalistic activities since a number of independent media he cooperated with were categorized by the authorities as ‘extremist organizations.’

Merkis is a historian by education. He graduated from the Department of History of the Belarusian State University. Therefore, he focused on local history and received a tour guide certificate for working with foreigners in German. He speaks Belarusian well. He was also learning English. In the pretrial detention center, he tried to learn French, but as far as is known, he had difficulty obtaining textbooks.