Belarusian authorities have convicted the chief editor of a prominent independent regional newspaper of “discrediting the Republic of Belarus” and sentenced him to four years in prison.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian authorities on Friday convicted the chief editor of a prominent independent regional newspaper of “discrediting the Republic of Belarus” and sentenced him to four years in prison, as the country continues its crackdown on dissent.

A court in Molodechno, a city in central Belarus, also ordered Aliaksandr Mantsevich, chief editor of the popular Regionalnaya Gazeta newspaper, to pay a fine of 94,000 Belarusian rubles (about $30,000), the Belarusian Association of Journalists reported.