Serbian court approves extradition of Belarusian journalist

A Serbian court has approved the extradition of a Belarusian journalist to his home country, where he is wanted for tax evasion, according to a ruling obtained by AFP on Friday.

Andrey Gnyot was arrested in October in Belgrade -- where he had arrived to film a commercial video -- on an Interpol warrant.

He is accused of evading tax in Belarus amounting to several hundred thousand euros.

Gnyot has always denied the accusations, labelling them an attempt by the Belarusian authorities to silence him.

The Belgrade court ruling, handed down on May 31, said Gnyot was wanted by Minsk for the "crime of tax evasion... having caused damage of a particularly significant amount".

It ruled the legal preconditions had been met to hand Gnyot over to Belarusian justice for a "criminal trial for tax evasion".

Gnyot, who was in prison for more than seven months and is currently under house arrest, told AFP he would appeal against the verdict, the second in his case.

A first court decision, reached in December, also approved his extradition but was annulled.

Gnyot said that if he is extradited to Belarus, which he fled in 2021, the "best option is (the) death penalty, it's easiest for me to die".

"But I'm pretty sure that they will use their most preferred technique: torture... Our system, (President Alexander) Lukashenko's regime looks like they have pleasure when they make people suffer," the 41-year-old added, speaking in English.

The journalist founded an association which supported protests against the re-election in 2020 of long-time Belarusian strongman Lukashenko.

Lukashenko, who has held power since 1994, is widely believed to have rigged the election result.

In reaction to the protests, he has orchestrated a huge crackdown on dissent, jailing hundreds of opponents and forcing thousands into exile.

On Friday, Belarusian exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya urged the international community to support Gnyot.

"Andrey is at risk in Belarus of human rights violations, deprivation of liberty and torture for political reasons," she wrote on X.

Tikhanovskaya appealed to Serbia's justice minister and the second-instance tribunal which will consider the appeal against extradition.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranks Belarus 167th out of 180 countries for press freedom -- one of the worst, indicating that before the Russian invasion of Ukraine it was the most dangerous country for journalists in Europe.