Maryna Zolatava

Maryna Zolatava (, ) (born on November 6, 1977, in Minsk, Belarus) is a journalist and political prisoner from Belarus. In 2004 she became the main editor of TUT.BY. Nasha Niva named her the person of the year in 2018.

 Early life, education and career 
She was born in Minsk in 1977. She has had two graduations. One graduation was at the Belarusian State University. Zolatava got a diploma in the field of philology there. The second graduation was in relation to postgraduate education. She got her learning done at the Institute of Linguistics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. She speaks Bulgarian as a third language.

She worked at the Institute of Science Problems and the news agency BelaPAN. She came to work for TUT.BY in the spring of 2004. She became the main editor of the website in the same year.

 "BelTA case" 
On August 7, 2018, the TUT.BY office was looked for. Zolatava got locked up after that. The police said that people were getting news from the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (government-run organization that makes news in Belarus) without money for its subscription. She was charged under Part 2 of Article 425 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (inaction of a key person). On March 4, 2019, Minsk Zavodskoy District Court found Zolatava guilty. She was sentenced to pay a fine in 300 basic units. The organizations of the European Union (the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, the Council of Europe, the Foreign Office of Germany and others), the representative of the United Nations on Belarus Miklós Haraszti, the United States, and international human rights organizations said bad words on the "BelTA case."

 Political persecution (from 2021) 
She was arrested on May 18, 2021. Other employees of TUT.BY were arrested with her too. A criminal procedure was opened against all of them. Her indictment is collaboration in tax evasion.

On May 25, 2021, nine organizations (the Viasna Human Rights Centre, the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and others) made a statement together. They named her a political prisoner. On September 14, 2021, support for the political prisoner was undertaken by Alois Rainer, member of the German Bundestag.

In March 2023, Zolotova was sentenced to 12 years in a general regime penal colony.

She was released and deported to Ukraine on 13 December 2025, after the US deal with the Lukashenko regime, among 123 political prisoners.

 Awards 
 "Person of the Year" by Nasha Niva (2018)
 The Ales Lipay (the person who made BelaPAN) Prize "Honor of Journalism" (2019)

 Thoughts 
The widow of Yuri Zisser (the person who made the web portal TUT.BY) Yulia Charnyauskaya named Zolotova “the mother of TUT.BY.”

 Personal life 
She is married, has a daughter Nadzieja and a son Fyodar.

 References 

 Other websites 




 Maryna Zolatava's page on the website of the Viasna Human Rights Centre

Category:1977 births
Category:Belarusian writers
Category:Belarusian journalists
Category:Living people
Category:Political prisoners according to Viasna Human Rights Centre