Belsat TV journalist Darya Chultsova got released after serving a full two-year sentence in a women’s penal colony in Homiel. She was convicted, along with journalist Katsaryna Andreyeva, for covering the demonstrations in Minsk on November 15, 2020. The authorities accused them of controlling the riots, Belsat reports.

The journalists went to work for the last time on November 15, three days after the tragic death of opposition activist Raman Bandarenka, who died in the hospital after being beaten by the police. The opposition announced a massive memorial action in the courtyard in front of his apartment building, where Raman was brutally detained. Dasha and Katsya knew that all journalists were then the target of the police and services. And the authorities would do everything to prevent them from covering the event. The journalists were not frightened, and their live coverage, which became the reason for their trial and imprisonment, was watched by nearly 75,000 people. Thanks to them, viewers could watch the violent action of the riot police dispersing the protest and the moment of destruction of the Bandarenka’s memorial.

The journalists who covered the protest from the 13th floor of a nearby apartment building got accused of managing the riot and paralyzing public transportation. Belarusian human rights activists recognized the journalists as prisoners of conscience just four days after they got charged. In December 2020, the girls won the Belarusian human rights community’s “Journalist of the Year” award.

The fate of the journalists has attracted interest: Belarusian Association of Journalists, Belarusian PEN Center, Association of Polish Journalists, National Union of Journalists of Ukraine and European Federation of Journalists, Russian NGO ‘Freedom of Speech’ and Moscow PEN Club. Journalists of Lithuania awarded the journalists the ‘Hope for Freedom’ award.

The investigation lasted three months. On February 18, 2021, Judge Natallya Buhuk sentenced Darya and Katsaryna to two years in a penal colony with mandatory labor. She ended up in a women’s colony in Homiel.