Former RFE/RL correspondent Ihar Karney, currently serving a three-year prison sentence for "cooperating" with the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), has been handed an additional eight-month term for "disobedience" inside the prison where he is incarcerated.
Karney, who has written extensively on the history and local history of Belarus and is also known as a travel blogger, was sentenced on December 13, two days after his trial began. It was not clear how he disobeyed authorities, a charge that the United Nations in October said is often laid for "the pettiest misbehavior."
In March, Karney, 56, was sentenced to three years on a charge of taking part in an "extremist" group because of his association with the BAJ, an advocacy and press trade group.
The BAJ was forced to begin operating from exile after it was deemed an "extremist" group by the government in February 2023 as part of a brutal crackdown on dissent and civil society following mass unrest over a 2020 presidential election that the opposition and Western governments say was rigged to keep Alyaksandr Lukashenka in power.
A new wave of journalist detentions has been seen in the country in recent weeks as Lukashenka seeks a seventh term in office in a January election.
Karney's sentencing comes a day after Belarusian authorities arrested seven journalists from the independent regional news outlet Intex-Press, located in the western city of Baranavichy.
Among the seven was Uladzimir Yanukevich, the media outlet's founder.
Meanwhile, another independent journalist, Volha Radzivonava, was sentenced to four years in prison for authoring critical reports about Lukashenka.
“This marks the arrest of the largest group of journalists from one media outlet in a year, signaling an escalation of repression,” BAJ leader Andrey Bastunets said.
“It looks like the authorities have decided to arrest all journalists they suspect of being disloyal ahead of January's presidential vote.”
In its latest report on journalists killed, detained, held hostage, and missing, the watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Belarus ranked fourth in the world in terms of the number of journalists it currently holds, 40, including RFE/RL journalists Andrey Kuznechyk and Ihar Losik.
In an October 31 report, UN experts said that, despite some recent amnesties and presidential pardons, many individuals convicted "without fair trial for the legitimate exercise of their civil and political rights remain in detention."
“The situation of some inmates belonging to the political opposition, of human rights defenders and political activists, many of whom have been convicted on extremism and terrorism-related charges, is extremely alarming,” the experts said.
“According to allegations received, such inmates are subjected to various forms of ill-treatment, including denial of medical care and the prolonged incommunicado detentions, which in some cases could amount to enforced disappearances.”
The Belarusian human rights community has recognized Karney as a political prisoner. Since July, Karney is reported to have been living in an isolation cell, where he is banned from almost all contact with the outside world.