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Iryna is 34 and was born in Minsk. She worked as a correspondent of Russian “Novaya gazeta” in Belarus. Iryna was formerly deputy editor-in-chief of “Belaruskaya delovaya gazeta” and editor-in-chief of “Imya” weekly, these were closed down by the Belarusian authorities. Iryna has been repeatedly prosecuted for work as an investigative journalist. In April 1997 Iryna, together with her father screenwriter and documentarian Uladzimir Khalip, were badly beaten during an opposition rally.
Iryna is winner of a number of awards, including the Dzmitry Zavadski Award (2003), the Henri Nannen Press Award (2005), the Hero of Europe Award (2005) and For Courage in Journalism Award (2009).
On 19 December 2010, Iryna was violently detained and put into the KGB pre-trial prison. In late December Iryna was charged with involvement in mass riots. During her detention, the authorities tried to take her 3-year-old son Danik into care despite the fact that there was family looking after him. In February 2011 Iryna Khalip received a journalists’ award “Russia’s Golden Pen”. Iryna is the wife of politician Andrei Sannikov, who was imprisoned for participation in the 19th December peasceful protest. On 4 April the charges to Iryna were changed to Article 342 of the Criminal Code. On 16 May 2011 she was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment with 2-year suspension. Iryna Khallip now lives under house arrest with her four year old son.
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