Judge

sentenced him to 2 years and 6 months in prison on two charges: "Defamation against Lukashenka", "Facilitating extremist activity".

Andrey Tolchyn

is 64 years old, he suffers from a number of chronic diseases.

Until 2020, he cooperated with independent media of Belarus.

He was detained on September 27, 2023 and has been in Gomel pre-trial detention center since then.

As Svaboda learned, his state of health has greatly deteriorated.

Andrei Tolchyn was taking care of his sick sister, who died about a week or two before his arrest.

The prosecutor asked for 3 years of prison for him.

The trial of freelance videographer Andrei Tolchyn began on March 5 in the Gomel Regional Court.

Tolchyn was detained on September 23, 2023.

The day after the arrest, the apartment where he lived with his wife was searched.

The investigators took computer equipment and other digital media.

According to BAJ, 34 representatives of the Belarusian mass media are currently behind bars.

Who is Andrei Tolchyn?

Andrei Tolchyn became a prominent figure in the democratic circle of Goml back in the 90s, when Belarus was gaining independence.

He then worked as an equipment adjuster at the Pramen radio plant.

Participated in an independent trade union movement that advocated the protection of workers' rights.

On a democratic basis, he was elected a deputy of the Gomel city council of the 21st convocation - this is exactly the council, one of two in Belarus, which in August 1991 openly spoke out against the communist coup d'état in Moscow and welcomed the declaration of independence of the Republic of Belarus.

In the city council, Andrei was a member of the public relations and mass media committee.

He was a member of the United Civil Party, now liquidated by the authorities, for a long time he headed the city organization of this party.

Supervised the activities of democratic charitable funds.

He also experienced unemployment.

After the 2010 elections, Tolchyn collaborated with independent media resources as a freelance videographer.

Andrei Tolchyn was fined and sent to prison many times for his journalistic work on the basis of administrative reports drawn up by the police, because the freelance videographer was not accredited by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 2020, Tolchin was detained together with journalist

for covering protests, officially for allegedly participating in mass riots.

Also, in 2021, the journalist was detained near Gomel pre-trial detention center-3, where he filmed the relatives of political prisoners

, who, together with other defendants, began to be tried in the premises of the detention center on June 24.

The trial was held behind closed doors, the political prisoners were accused of organizing riots, arson, and obstructing the activities of the CEC.

Then Tolchyn recorded the comment of one of the European Union diplomats who came to Gomel for the court.

The police took all the videos from the freelancer.