Three defendants involved in tut.by case released from custody in Belarus

MINSK. March 11 (Interfax) - A restraining measure has been changed for three defendants in the tut.by case and they have been released from custody, the defendants' colleagues said on Friday.

"After almost ten months behind bars, three defendants in the tut.by case were released from a pretrial detention facility. Their restraining measure has been changed. They are former deputy chief accountant of Tut By Media Maria Novik, former deputy director general for general affairs Irina Rybalko and former chief accountant Angela Assad," the statement said.

The former tut.by employees released from custody signed a non-disclosure agreement. Last September, CEO of Hoster.by Sergei Povalishev, another defendant in this case, were released from custody. In January of this year, Yulia Chernyavskaya, widow of tut.by founder Yury Zisser, was released from house arrest.

Nine tut.by employees, including its Editor-in-Chief Marina Zolotova, are still in custody.

On May 18, 2021, searches were conducted in the offices of the tut.by editorial office and at the homes of the tut.by employees, who are charged with gross tax evasion (Part 2 of Article 243 of the Belarusian Criminal Code) as part of the criminal case against them. According to the Department of Financial Investigations, Tut By Media, as a resident of the High Technologies Park (HTP), yielded revenue from sources other than the activities permitted for HTP residents. The decision to deprive the company of the right to tax benefits granted to HTP residents was made at the same time, on May 18. More than ten tut.by employees ended up in the pretrial detention facilities or under house arrest.

Last August, at the request of the Interior Ministry, the court recognized tut.by, its accounts on social media and messengers, as well as its mirror sites created after the blocking of the main website, as extremist.

The publication was charged with promoting extremism aimed at inciting "social enmity or discord, organizing and holding [events creating] mass unrest, as well as fanning political and ideological hatred."

Last October, a criminal case was initiated against officials and employees of Tut By Media for fomenting social enmity or discord committed by a criminal group (Part 3 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code).

Tut.by was the largest Belarusian online news portal. The publication was registered as a media outlet in January 2019, and had been operating without this status since 2000. In December 2020, the court deprived tut.by of its media status. The reason was the warnings issued by the Belarusian Ministry of Information.