Yet again, a court in the Serbian capital Belgrade will determine Andrey Gnyot's fate — it is his last hope. Judges in Gnyot's case have been weighing his appeal of a prior Serbian ruling that would see the Belarus activist extradited to Minsk. He has spent most of the last 10 months in a Serbian jail.

According to court documents, Belarus authorities want Gnyot to answer accusations of tax evasion. But Gnyot's lawyers say he is being persecuted because of his past political activities against dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Gnyot joined numerous protests calling out Lukashenko for election fraud in the summer of 2020.

Andrey Gnyot is a director, journalist and activist, he makes TV ads and music videos. He has lived in Thailand since fleeing Belarus. He was arrested on October 30, 2023, when he arrived in Belgrade from Bangkok.

"That was already my second trip, I was in Serbia to film for a short time in August. I was arrested at passport control, then I was taken to the police and informed that I was wanted on an INTERPOL warrant — at the request of Belarus' INTERPOL office," Gnyot told DW.

It was then that he discovered authorities in Belarus had charged him with having withheld roughly €300,000 ($367,000) in taxes. Gnyot says the charges against him are politically motivated. After........

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