New York, August 26, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Belarusian journalist Dzmitry Luksha, who received a presidential pardon after serving 30 months of a four-year prison sentence.
“Belarusian journalist Dzmitry Luksha unjustly served two-and-a-half years behind bars when he shouldn’t have spent a day in jail,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “While we welcome his release, Belarus remains Europe’s largest jailer of journalists. The authorities must now free all members of the press imprisoned in retaliation for their job.”
Luksha and journalist Ksenia Lutskina were among 30 prisoners pardoned by President Aleksandr Lukashenko on August 16 following convictions for involvement in “protest activities.”
Luksha, a freelance journalist with the Kazakh state-funded television station Khabar 24 and a former reporter with Belarusian state broadcaster Belteleradio, was detained in March 2022 and convicted that December of “discrediting Belarus” and “organizing or participating in gross violations of public order,” according to media reports and Viasna, a banned Belarusian human rights group. The court also sentenced him to a fine of 16,000 Belarusian rubles (US$6,380), those reports said.
Luksha was released in July, but information about his release was not made public until last week.
Belarus is the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 28 journalists, including Luksha, behind bars on December 1, 2023, when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census.
