Belarus jails reporter for article on KGB

MOSCOW: Belarus on Thursday sentenced a journalist who worked for a Russian newspaper to three years in prison for an article that mentioned the reclusive country´s powerful KGB secret police, state-run media reported.

Belarus, ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, has forced most of the media to flee and jailed remaining independent journalists. Reporter Gennady Mozheyko was found guilty of insulting Lukashenko, as well as inciting national and social discord, state news agency BELTA reported.

Mozheyko worked in the Minsk offices of Russia´s pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. The reason for the probe against him was a 2021 article -- taken offline shortly after it was published -- on a shootout involving the KGB in Minsk.