July 20, 2011--Seven months after the disputed Belarus presidential election led to the widespread arrest of protesters and journalists, IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winner Iryna Khalip is vowing this week to appeal her case to the Supreme Court and the UN Human Rights Committee.

Khalip, an outspoken journalist who is married to jailed presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, had her appeal rejected this week by the Minsk City Court. After she covered the post-election protests, she was charged with inciting a riot and given a suspended two-year prison term with two years probation and a three-year “restricted freedom” sentence.

“We have a nice judicial tradition whereby you know beforehand what will happen and what the judge with the prosecutor will say,”Khalip told reporters.

“I don’t believe that the Supreme Court will consider the case in a different way, but we want to go through all institutions to have all necessary papers for the UN, as well as for our rehabilitation that will take place when things will change. And they will change very soon,” she said.

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