Radio Svaboda journalist Aleh Hruzdzilovich criminally charged

Aleh told the inves­ti­ga­tor that he had not plead­ed guilty, that he did not take part in the action, but act­ed as a jour­nal­ist and cov­ered the march dis­re­gard­ing the fact that he did not have accred­i­ta­tion. At that time he worked as a free­lance reporter for Nar­o­d­naya Volya news­pa­per.

Today Aleh Hruzdzilovich’s wife Maryana deliv­ered him a care pack­age, first of all, warm clothes and some food, she told Radio Svabo­da.

Accord­ing to the lawyer, Aleh looks fine, he only asked for warm clothes. His cell­mates helped him with it, gave him extra pants, he used a tow­el to sub­sti­tute a scarf.

Aleh Hruzdzilovich was detained on Decem­ber 23 and trans­ferred to the pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter in Min­sk. He has not had any inter­ro­ga­tions since his first arrest in July 2021. As late as Decem­ber 28 the first one took place.

Hruzdzilovich was detained for the first time on July 16. The Svabo­da edi­to­r­i­al office was searched and the office was sealed. He was released ten days lat­er.

Hruzdzilovich then refused to tes­ti­fy. Upon his release, he signed an under­tak­ing to appear. Dur­ing the first arrest, Aleh went on a hunger strike for three days protest­ing the deten­tion and in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Ines­sa Studzin­skaya who went on a hunger strike for nine days demand­ing to see her lawyer.

Andrei Kuznechyk, a Radio Svabo­da free­lancer, has been in jail for a month now. A crim­i­nal case has also been ini­ti­at­ed against him. Radio Svabo­da jour­nal­ist and con­sul­tant Ihar Losik has been in prison for a year and a half. He was sen­tenced to 15 years in a penal colony.

On Decem­ber 23, it became known that the Belaru­sian secu­ri­ty forces rec­og­nized Radio Svabo­da as an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion.”