Eight charged in BelTA case
MINSK. Nov 8 (Interfax) - The Belarusian Investigative Committee has brought charges against a total of eight suspects in the BelTA news agency case, including six employees of the tut.by web portal and two employees of the BelaPAN news agency.
"Tut.by portal news editor Galina Ulasik and BelaPAN agency Editor-in-Chief Irina Levshina were indicted in the so-called BelTA case on November 8. They have also been obliged not to leave town and behave," the tut.by editorial office said.
The suspects have been accused of "gaining access to computer information for personal gain or other personal interest."
The identical charges were earlier brought against five suspected employees of tut.by and one BelaPAN commentator.
All those charged have been invited to compensate for the damage caused, ranging from 3,000 to 14,000 Belarusian rubles (from $1,500 to $7,200).
As reported earlier, the offices of tut.by, BelaPAN, and some other media outlets were searched on August 7-8 in a case dealing with unsanctioned accessing of information of the state news agency BelTA. The criminal case was opened after BelTA reported problems with access to paid services the agency provided to one of its subscribers.