Maryna Zolatava had been behind bars since May 18, 2021. In March 2023, she was sentenced to 12 years in a general-regime penal colony. Maryna Zolatava was among the group of political prisoners released on December 13.
The editor-in-chief of Belarus's largest portal was detained on May 18, 2021. On that day, security forces came to her home, as well as to the homes of some other employees of the company and partner organizations, as part of a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 243 of the Criminal Code (Evasion of taxes and fees on an especially large scale).
The trial in the TUT.BY case began only in early 2023 and was held behind closed doors. Along with Zolatava, Lyudmila Chekina, director of LLC "Tut Bay Media," Olga Loyka, editor of the economy and politics department, correspondent Alena Taukachova, and legal counsel Katsiaryna Tkachenka were tried. Before the trial, Taukachova, Loyka, and Tkachenka left the country.
Maryna Zolatava was accused of "aiding in tax evasion, inciting social hostility and discord, and disseminating materials with calls for actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of Belarus."
Maryna Zolatava and Lyudmila Chekina during the trial. Photo: Tochka.by
On March 17, 2023, the editor was sentenced to 12 years in a general-regime penal colony under Part 1 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code of Belarus "Incitement of racial, national, religious or other social hostility" and Part 3 of Article 361 "Calls for actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus." The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB also included Maryna Zolatava in the lists of "extremists" and "terrorists."
Maryna served her sentence in women's correctional colony No. 4 in Homiel.
Her husband and two children — daughter Nadzeya and son Fyodar — were waiting for her release.
Maryna Zolatava was born in Minsk on November 6, 1977. After graduating from the Philological Faculty of BSU, she studied at the postgraduate school of the Institute of Linguistics of the National Academy of Sciences. She worked at the state Institute of Science Problems, as well as at the Belapan news agency.
In 2004, Maryna headed Tut.by. At that time, the website was a regular news aggregator. The most interesting content produced on other platforms was displayed. In fact, Zolatava was the first person at the portal to professionally deal specifically with news.
When she started working, the website had only 6,000 unique users per day. Seventeen years later, in 2021, its traffic was more than 100 times higher. The website transformed into a large portal and became the most influential Belarusian resource, whose opinion authorities were forced to consider and to which they had to react.
Photo: Tut.by
Maryna Zolatava was first detained on August 7, 2018, in the so-called "BelTA case." It was then revealed that several well-known Belarusian editors and journalists had used a paid version of the state agency under someone else's password. About a dozen journalists ended up in Akrestsin Street detention center for three days. However, only one case was brought to court — against Maryna Zolatava under Part 2 of Article 425 of the Criminal Code "Inaction of an official." As a result, Zolatava paid a fine of 300 basic units.
She was imprisoned for the second time in May 2021.
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