Katsiaryna Andreyeva, 27, and Darya Chultsova, 23, were detained in an apartment in November from where they had been filming protests taking place over the death of a protester who was killed several days earlier.Both women pleaded not guilty after being accused of orchestrating the demonstrations by filming them. As material evidence, the prosecution had presented a video camera, a microphone, mobile phones, flash drives and press jackets.
The crackdown prompted Western countries to impose new sanctions on Minsk. Lukashenko has refused to step down, buttressed by support from Moscow, which sees Belarus as a buffer state against the European Union and NATO. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists had urged the authorities to drop the"absurd" charges against Andreyeva and Chultsova, a reporter and a camerawoman, and release them unconditionally.
"Every time I went to work, I risked my health and life," Andreyeva had said in a statement earlier."I managed to hide from rubber bullets, explosions of stun grenades, blows from truncheons. My colleagues were much less fortunate."The journalists were filming protests after the death of 31-year-old Roman Bondarenko, who died in hospital in November after what protesters say was a severe beating by security forces. The interior ministry denied responsibility.