October 4: 16 journalists detained, five remain in custody until trial

Homel

Police detained Sil­nye Novosti reporter Nadzeya Puzhyn­skaya. She was detained near the deten­tion cen­ter where she came to bring care pack­ages for her detained col­leagues — Anna and Dzia­n­is Yak­sh­tas. Nadzeya was charged with «par­tic­i­pa­tion in unau­tho­rized event».

The police failed to explain what spe­cif­ic «unau­tho­rized event» Nadzeya had tak­en part in. Founder of Sil­nye Novosti, Piotr Kuznet­sou was informed by the Homel region­al depart­ment of inter­nal affairs that Puzhyn­skuyu had been detained «due to ini­ti­a­tion of admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ings under Arti­cle 23.34». Police depart­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive Vitaly Pry­s­tro­mau respond­ed to the ques­tion what spe­cif­ic episode she was detained for: «I can not real­ly say, I think there was a rea­son to.»

Nadzeya was left in the tem­po­rary deten­tion facil­i­ty until tri­al.

Viteb­sk

TUT.by and Bela­PAN jour­nal­ist Tat­siana Matveye­va, TUT.by and Nar­o­d­naya Volya jour­nal­ist Ales Pilet­s­ki, and edi­tor of «Peo­ple’s News Viteb­sk» Siarhei Serabro were detained in Viteb­sk. All were released after «pre­ven­tive con­ver­sa­tions».

Hrod­na

Blog­ger Andrei Irkha was detained on Savet­skaya Square in Hrod­na while stream­ing. He was released after ques­tion­ing. The police also took his phone. He was punched in the face sev­er­al times dur­ing arrest. The offi­cers who did it kept ask­ing if he was going to con­tin­ue stream­ing. Dur­ing the arrest they strong­ly tied his hands with a cable tie.

Nar­o­d­naya Volya and TUT.BY jour­nal­ists Vol­ha Kami­ahi­na and Kat­siary­na Hardzeye­va were detained, . The police released them after their press ID check and «pre­ven­tive con­ver­sa­tions».

Min­sk

In Min­sk, the poluce detained and lat­er released Bel­Gaze­ta pho­tog­ra­ph­er  Daria Sapranet­skaya, and Onliner.by reporter Ali­ak­san­dr Ula­dy­ka.

Lat­er Daria Sapranet­skaya received a call from the Kas­trych­nit­s­ki dis­trict police depart­ment. The offi­cer told her to return to the police sta­tion. A lit­tle lat­er police and Omon offi­cers rang the bell of her apart­ment, all in bal­a­clavas, Daria report­ed. Daria promised that she would come to the police depart­ment on Mon­day, to get acquaint­ed with the admin­is­tra­tive pro­to­col the police had com­piled on her. She did not open the door, but livestreamed from her apart­ment.

The law-enforce­ment offi­cers left.

Jour­nal­ist of Belaru­sians and Mar­ket news­pa­per Aleh Shapi­al­iuk was also detained today in Min­sk. He was released after the doc­u­ment check. In the evening, the law-enforce­ment offi­cers came to his apart­ment, just as in Dari­a’s case.

Babruisk

The police detained Mary­na Mauchana­va, Ale­sia Latsin­skaya, Dzia­n­is Nosau and Yury Kamis­a­rau. They were left in cus­tody until tri­al on Mon­day.  Mary­na Mauchana­va man­aged to report that to BAJ from the police sta­tion.

Mary­na Mauchana­va and Ale­sia Latsin­skaya  have under­age chil­dren.

Brest

POlice detained chief edi­tor of the city online mag­a­zine Binoc­u­lars Kse­nia Pia­tro­vich and pho­tog­ra­ph­er of Brest­skaya Gaze­ta Aleh Pal­ishchuk. They were released from the police sta­tion after a doc­u­ment check.

Mahileu

Bela­PAN jour­nal­ist Ales Asipt­sou was detained. After a «pre­ven­tive con­ver­sa­tion» Asipt­sou was released.