Detained Naša Niva journalist Andrej Skurko diagnosed with pneumonia

Accord­ing to Naša Niva, Mr. Skurko’s con­di­tion may have been caused by COVID-19.

Right after his trans­fer to Pre­tri­al Deten­tion Cen­ter No. 1 on Val­adarska­ha Street in Min­sk, Mr. Skurko was admit­ted to the facility’s med­ical unit.

“Accord­ing to jour­nal­ist Alieh Hruzdzilovič, who was held in the same cell with him [at the deten­tion cen­ter on Akresci­na Street], Andrej devel­oped a cough and a fever on July 18. He was giv­en parac­eta­mol pills,” Naša Niva said. “Skurko has insulin depen­dent dia­betes. He spent 13 days at the deten­tion cen­ter on Akresci­na Street with­out a mat­tress and a bed and with lights con­stant­ly on, with­out dia­bet­ic meals and food parcels. COVID is dead­ly for those who have dia­betes.”  

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists has asked the inte­ri­or min­istry, the health min­istry and the inte­ri­or ministry’s Cor­rec­tions Depart­ment to let Mr. Skurko be admit­ted to a civil­ian hos­pi­tal.

Mr. Skurko was arrest­ed on July 8 along with Naša Niva Edi­tor in Chief Jahor Mar­ci­novič, jour­nal­ist Andrej Dyńko and accoun­tant Voĺha Rakovič fol­low­ing search­es of their homes, Naša Niva’s edi­to­r­i­al office and its account­ing office. All the four peo­ple were said to be sus­pects in crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings under Part One of the Crim­i­nal Code’s Arti­cle 342, which penal­izes “orga­niz­ing or tak­ing an active part in group actions gross­ly dis­turb­ing pub­lic order.”

Ms. Rakovič was released on July 16. Messrs. Mar­ci­novič, Skurko and Dyńko were not for­mal­ly charged with­in the first 10 days of their deten­tion. Instead, they were for­mal­ly rear­rest­ed and put in cus­tody for 72 hours as sus­pects in pro­ceed­ings under a dif­fer­ent Crim­i­nal Code arti­cle.

Mr. Dyńko was released on July 21 on a pledge to report when ordered.