Journalist Andrei Aliaksandrau and Iryna Zlobina are free. They got married in detention
Journalist and media manager Andrei Aliaksandrau and his wife Iryna Zlobina were in detention since January 2021.
Andrei Aliaksandrau and Iryna Zlobina were among the political prisoners who were released and taken out of the country on September 16.
Contact with journalist and media manager Andrei Aliaksandrau, as well as with his girlfriend Iryna Zlobina, was lost on Tuesday afternoon, January 12, 2021. Later, it became known that both had been detained.
Just three days later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported: "Suspected of financing extremist activities." This referred to paying fines and supporting people in temporary detention centers who participated in the protests. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Aliaksandrau paid 250 fines from August 22 to November 9; the lists and money for paying the fines were transferred to him by the BY Help fund.
On Thursday, January 14, a search was conducted at the office of BelaPAN, where Aliaksandrau was deputy general director from 2015-2018, and hard drives were confiscated.
On April 4, it became known that their case was combined with charges against Dzmitry Navazhylau and Iryna Leushyna from "BelaPAN".
Iryna Zlobina was charged under Part 2 of Article 342 (organization of actions that grossly violate public order, and preparation or training for such activities) and Part 1 of Article 356 (treason).
Andrei Aliaksandrau, in addition to these articles, had two more: Part 1 of Article 361-1 (participation in an extremist formation) and Part 2 of Article 243 (evasion of taxes and fees).
In October 2022, the journalist was sentenced to 14 years in a general regime correctional colony. Andrei Aliaksandrau did not admit guilt. He served his sentence in the Navapolatsk correctional colony No. 1.
Iryna Zlobina was sentenced to 9 years in prison. The woman served her sentence in the Homiel colony.
Iryna Zlobina and Andrei Aliaksandrau got married in pre-trial detention center No. 1 on Valadarskaha Street on September 1, 2022. They signed the registry without witnesses, in the presence of guards.
Andrei Aliaksandrau was born in 1978 in Nizhny Tagil. He spent his childhood in Pastavy, where he finished school. He graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Polatsk State University. He received a Master's degree in Media Management from the University of Westminster in London.
He began his journalistic career in Navapolatsk.
From 2009-2012, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists. He worked for international organizations Index on Censorship and Article 19.
From 2015-2018, he was Deputy Director of the BelaPAN news agency.
Iryna Zlobina was born in 1989, graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of BSU. In recent years, she ran her small business — flowers and souvenir production.
From August to November 2020, Aliaksandrau and Iryna collaborated with the crowdfunding platform BY_help, which helped participants of protests against the rigged presidential elections of 2020 pay administrative fines for participating in rallies. This became the reason for their arrest in January 2021.
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