Belarus Parades Jailed RFE/RL Journalist Ihar Losik On State TV

Belarus state TV has aired a propaganda program parading imprisoned RFE/RL journalist Ihar Losik, who has not been heard from in nearly two years.

The segment, broadcast on the state ONT channel, was the second part of a propaganda series about RFE/RL journalists held in Belarusian prisons, which accuses them of "trying to set Belarus on fire."

Belarus is holding a presidential election on January 26, where the country's authoritarian President Alyaksandr Luksahenka is expected to win a seventh term.

The 32-year-old RFE/RL's Belarus Service journalist, who has maintained his innocence, was arrested in June 2020 and sentenced in December 2021 for "organizing mass riots, taking part in mass disorder, inciting social hatred," and several other charges that remain unclear.

2020 Crackdown

In 2020, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest the result of a presidential election, which was widely considered by international observers to be rigged. The security forces responded with a brutal crackdown, arresting over 30,000 people, many of whom reported torture and ill-treatment while in custody.

The crackdown has pushed most opposition politicians to leave Belarus fearing for their safety and freedom.

Many Western governments have refused to recognize the results of the 2020 election and do not consider Lukashenka to be the country's legitimate leader.

The 25-minute broadcast marked the first time Losik has been seen publicly since June 25, 2020, when he was detained and later sentenced to 15 years in prison in a closed trial.

RFE/RL, rights groups, and foreign governments have called the charges against Losik politically motivated.

His family received his last letter in February 2023, and there has been no subsequent contact, raising concerns about his treatment and well-being.

Hunger Strikes, Self-Harm

In the footage, recorded at a KGB detention center in Minsk, Losik appeared hunched over and visibly thinner.

Losik was interviewed in the TV program, however RFE/RL does not quote statements obtained under unknown circumstances from individuals in detention.

Before the interview began, a guard escorted Losik down a steep staircase with his hands restrained behind his back. At one point in the footage, which was recorded at night in apparently freezing temperatures, he was made to stand facing a wall.

SEE ALSO: Belarusian State TV Airs Propaganda Film Featuring Jailed RFE/RL Journalists

According to human rights groups, since his detention, Losik has undertaken two prolonged hunger strikes and, on two occasions, inflicted self-harm as a form of protest by cutting his hands and neck.

Losik's wife, Darya, was given a two-year sentence in January 2023 on a charge of facilitating extremist activity that stemmed from her interview with the Poland-based Belsat news outlet, which has been declared an extremist group by Minsk. She was released in July 2024, as part of a mass amnesty.

Losik is one of three RFE/RL journalists -- the other two are Andrey Kuznechyk, who is being held in Belarus, and Vladyslav Yesypenko, a correspondent for RFE/RL's Ukrainian service who is being held by Russia-installed authorities in Ukraine's occupied Crimea -- currently imprisoned on charges related to their work.

Three Jailed Journalists

RFE/RL, rights groups, and several U.S. and EU politicians have called repeatedly for the release of all three, saying they have been wrongly detained.

In October 2023, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Belarus violated international human rights law by imprisoning Losik, concluding that his arrest and detention were "based solely on his journalistic activity and his exercise of the freedoms of expression and of association."

The first program in the series, broadcast on January 14, focused on Andrey Kuznechyk, a journalist with RFE/RL’s Belarus Service who was detained in November 2021.

In the broadcast, Kuznechyk appeared emaciated and tired as he talks with one of the filmmakers in what appear to be prison surroundings.

Kuznechyk, a father of two, was initially sentenced to 10 days in jail on hooliganism charges that he rejected. After serving that penalty, he was charged with creating an extremist group and sentenced in June 2022 to six years in a medium-security penal colony.

The state-controlled channel also previewed the next segment in the propaganda series, featuring former RFE/RL's Belarus Service journalist Ihar Karney, who has been imprisoned since July 2023.