Belarus state news agency's top manager jailed for leaking information

BELTA deputy general director for ideology Siarhei Adarykha has been sentenced to five years in prison for passing information to a People's anti-crisis department representative and the "Nick and Mike" telegram channel. 

Human rights activists reported that the official was accused of exceeding his authority (Part 2 Article 426 of the Criminal Code).  Adarykha reportedly passed the data seeking to "avoid lustration after the change of power" in the future.

Adarykha was convicted on January 10 by a Minsk court. The information about the trial emerged at the beginning of February, but at that time, it was not known either what he was accused of or what sentence he had received. It was only reported that he was tried by Aliaksandr Vouk, infamous for numerous politically motivated trials.