Belarus court sentences 4 journalists to years of house arrest

New York, November 17, 2025—Belarusian authorities should immediately revoke the house arrests of journalists Natallia Semianovich, Mikita Piatrouski, Ruslan Raviaka, and Ludmila Zeliankova, and stop prosecuting journalists for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. 

On August 19, a court convicted the four on charges of “promoting extremist activity,” according to a source close to the case who spoke to CPJ under condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisal. Two of the journalists were sentenced to three years of house arrest, and the other two to two years. In addition, all were fined 21,000 Belarusian rubles (US$6,160), the source said. 

“The sentencing of journalists Natallia Semianovich, Mikita Piatrouski, Ruslan Raviaka, and Ludmila Zeliankova to years of house arrest simply for doing their work is a blatant injustice,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Authorities should lift the restrictions imposed on these journalists — extremism charges are a flimsy excuse for censoring the press.”

On November 11, the Belarusian Ministry of Interior added the four journalists to its list of people allegedly involved in extremist activity, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an exiled advocacy and trade group.

According to Article 48-1 of the Belarusian Code of Execution of Criminal Sentences, a person under “home confinement” can go to work, but must be at home from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and during their free time, cannot leave the country or violate any laws, and is barred from consuming alcohol or going out for entertainment purposes. 

When they were detained in early December 2024, all four journalists worked with BAR24, a website covering the western city of Baranavichy created by the former staff of the shuttered independent outlet Intex-Press.

After being stripped of its registration in 2022, Intex-Press’s office was raided in February 2023 by Baranavichy police, who seized  laptops, system units and a camera. In April 2023, Intex-Press’s website and social media pages were designated “extremist materials.” Seven of its journalists were detained, and four were sentenced to house arrest.

According to independent news website Nasha Niva, “several other former Intex-Press employees remain in custody, including former director Vladimir Yanukevich.” 

As of November 17, Belarus was holding at least 25 journalists, including Semianovich, Piatrouski, Raviaka, and Zeliankova.

CPJ emailed the Belarusian Investigative Committee, the law enforcement agency in charge of pretrial proceedings, for comment but did not receive a reply.