Maryna Zolatava is accused of “professional inaction”. She faces up to five years in prison.
Earlier, Maryna Zolatava was suspected of “unauthorized access to computer information” (part 2 of article 349 of the Criminal Code), but then the prosecution under this article was stopped “in connection with a crime that had not been committed,” Tut.by reports.
Thus, all the fourteen people involved in the “BelTA case” have been charged, and the amount of damage they had done determined (it ranges from Br 3,000 to 17,000 BYN).
“The investigation of the criminal case on unauthorized access to computer information of RUE BelTA is at the final stage,” the Investigation Committee stated recently.
The accused journalists and editors had “deliberately, out of mercenary and other personal interest performed unauthorized access to computer information stored in the computer network and the BelTA network, which was accompanied by a violation of the protection systems, which by negligence caused another significant damage. ”
After the petitions of the two defendants in the case — the Deutsche Welle correspondent in Belarus Paulyuk Bykowski and the editor of the portal Realt.by Uladzislau Kuletsky, were released from criminal responsibility.
On August 7, the offices of Tut.by and BelaPAN were searched and a group pf journalists was detained. They later spent several days in the temporary detention center on Akrestsina street.
On August 27, most of the suspects were banned from leaving the country.
Our colleagues who are involved in the case were supported by the European Union and the United States, as well as international human rights organizations.
