Liudmila Chekina, Tut.by Director, Released
The former CEO of Tut.by had been behind bars since May 2021. The court, which took place in early 2023, sentenced her to twelve years in a penal colony.
Liudmila Chekina. Photo: "Nasha Niva"
Liudmila Chekina was among the political prisoners who were released and taken out of the country on September 16.
The General Director of TUT BY MEDIA LLC was detained on May 18, 2021. On that day, security forces came not only to her home, but also to the homes of some other employees of the company and partner organizations as part of a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 243 of the Criminal Code (evasion of tax and fee payments on an especially large scale).
The trial in the Tut.by case only began in early 2023 and was held in closed session. Along with Chekina, the editor-in-chief of Belarus's largest portal Maryna Zolatava, economics and politics editor Volha Loika, correspondent Alena Talkachova, and legal counsel Katsiaryna Tkachenka were tried. Before the trial, Talkachova, Loika, and Tkachenka left the country.
Liudmila Chekina in court. Photo: BelTA
Liudmila Chekina was charged under three criminal articles: evasion of tax and fee payments on an especially large scale (Part 2, Art. 243 of the Criminal Code); organization of deliberate actions aimed at inciting racial, national, religious or other social enmity, committed by a group of persons, which entailed grave consequences (Part 3, Art. 130 of the Criminal Code); and leading calls for actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus, committed using mass media or the global computer network Internet (Part 3, Art. 361 of the Criminal Code).
In October 2022, the State Security Committee of Belarus included Liudmila Chekina, along with Maryna Zolatava, in a list of individuals "involved in terrorist activities."
On March 17, 2023, the court handed down a verdict – 12 years in a general-regime penal colony and a fine of 1000 basic units (37,000 rubles). She served her term in women's penal colony No. 4 in Homiel. Her son was waiting for her at large.
Liudmila Chekina was born on July 13, 1973, in Sergiev Posad, Russia. Her father was a career military officer, so the family moved frequently and settled in Zhodzina, Minsk Region, even before the collapse of the USSR.
She herself became interested in jurisprudence at school: first, she graduated with honors from a law technical college, and then from the Law Faculty of BSU. She began her career as a lawyer in Zhodzina, and in 2008, she moved to Minsk, where she joined the company "Nadziejnyja Systemy" (Reliable Systems) as a legal counsel. In 2012, Chekina became the General Director of "Nadziejnyja Systemy". Later, she completed an Executive MBA course at the IPM Business School. In 2017, she headed "TUT BY MEDIA".