Journalist Dzianis Ivashyn is political prisoner

Joint statement of Belarusian human rights organizations

Min­sk – March 24, 2021

On March 12, the KGB detained Dzia­n­is Ivashyn, an inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist based in Hrod­na. Ivashyn writes for the Novy Chas news­pa­per. His lat­est arti­cle dealt with for­mer offi­cers of the Ukrain­ian Berkut spe­cial police force who fled Ukraine and were hired by the Belaru­sian police. He is also a jour­nal­ist and edi­tor of the Belaru­sian ser­vice of the informnapalm.org web­site.

On the same day, secu­ri­ty forces searched the journalist’s apart­ment and his mother’s house, and on March 15, his 95-year-old grandmother’s home was searched.

Dzia­n­is Ivashyn was remand­ed in cus­tody for two months.

On March 20, it was report­ed that Ivashyn had been charged under Art. 365 of the Crim­i­nal Code, alleged­ly for “influ­enc­ing a police offi­cer” in order to “change the nature of his law­ful activ­i­ties” by dis­clos­ing clas­si­fied infor­ma­tion.

In response to the pre-tri­al deten­tion of jour­nal­ist Dzia­n­is Ivashyn and the charges he faced under Art. 365 of the Crim­i­nal Code, we, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty, note the fol­low­ing.

Dzia­n­is Ivashyn’s work to inves­ti­gate the Belaru­sian jobs of the for­mer Berkut mem­bers pur­sued a legit­i­mate goal of inform­ing the pub­lic. Infor­ma­tion for the jour­nal­is­tic inves­ti­ga­tion was tak­en from open sources.

In accor­dance with para­graph 30 of Gen­er­al com­ment No. 34 “Arti­cle 19: Free­doms of opin­ion and expres­sion” of the UN Human Rights Com­mit­tee, “extreme care must be tak­en by States par­ties to ensure that trea­son laws 64 and sim­i­lar pro­vi­sions relat­ing to nation­al secu­ri­ty, whether described as offi­cial secrets or sedi­tion laws or oth­er­wise, are craft­ed and applied in a man­ner that con­forms to the strict require­ments of para­graph 3. It is not com­pat­i­ble with para­graph 3, for instance, to invoke such laws to sup­press or with­hold from the pub­lic infor­ma­tion of legit­i­mate pub­lic inter­est that does not harm nation­al secu­ri­ty or to pros­e­cute jour­nal­ists, researchers, envi­ron­men­tal activists, human rights defend­ers, or oth­ers, for hav­ing dis­sem­i­nat­ed such infor­ma­tion.”

Thus, these actions are a non-vio­lent exer­cise of the free­dom to seek and dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion, which falls under the pro­tec­tion of Art. 19 of the ICCPR and can­not be clas­si­fied as “influ­enc­ing a police offi­cer” in order to “change the nature of his law­ful activ­i­ties”.

In this con­text, we con­sid­er the deten­tion of Dzia­n­is Ivashyn to be polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed. The jour­nal­ist is there­fore a polit­i­cal pris­on­er, in accor­dance with para­graph 3.1 (a) of the Guide­lines on the Def­i­n­i­tion of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers.

In this regard, we, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of human rights orga­ni­za­tions in Belarus, call to:

• imme­di­ate­ly and uncon­di­tion­al­ly release Dzia­n­is Ivashyn from cus­tody and drop the crim­i­nal charges he is fac­ing;

• imme­di­ate­ly release all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and put an end to polit­i­cal repres­sion in the coun­try.

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists

Human Rights Cen­ter «Vias­na»

Legal Ini­tia­tive

Cen­ter for Legal Trans­for­ma­tion “Lawtrend”

Barys Zvozskau Belaru­sian Human Rights House

Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee

PEN Belarus

Belaru­sian Doc­u­men­ta­tion Cen­ter