Two journalists recognized as political prisoners

Joint state­ment by the Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty

June 8, 2022

On May 18, 2022, the KGB searched the edi­to­r­i­al office of Belorusy i rynok and the home of the news­pa­per direc­tor Mr. Kanstantsin Zalatykh. Mr. Zalatykh was detained and his lap­top and means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion were seized. The lawyer of the detainee was unable to meet with his client for almost a week and the where­abouts of the news­pa­per direc­tor remained unknown.

Mr. Zalatykh was charged under Part 2 of Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code of Belarus (incite­ment to hatred, com­bined with vio­lence or com­mit­ted by an offi­cial), which pro­vides for three to ten years of impris­on­ment. He is cur­rent­ly kept in pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter in Žodz­i­na.

On May 26, 2022, the house of Mr. Ali­ak­san­dr (Ales) Liubenchuk a jour­nal­ist for Belorusy i rynok, was also searched. Mr. Liubenchuk was detained as part of the crim­i­nal case and tak­en to the tem­po­rary deten­tion facil­i­ty in Min­sk. The jour­nal­ist has been charged, how­ev­er, the crim­i­nal arti­cle charged against Mr. Liubenchuk is not known because his lawyer is under a non-dis­clo­sure pledge.

We, the under­signed orga­ni­za­tions, con­sid­er all these actions in rela­tion to Mr. Kanstantsin Zalatykh and Mr. Ali­ak­san­dr (Ales) Liubenchuk as a con­tin­u­a­tion of the tar­get­ed pol­i­cy of the author­i­ties to lim­it the dis­sem­i­na­tion of uncen­sored infor­ma­tion in the coun­try and a con­tin­u­a­tion of the attack on free­dom of speech. After the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, dozens of NGO and media web­sites have been blocked in Belarus, a num­ber of print­ed media has been closed, and jour­nal­ists and employ­ees of the Belaru­sian media sec­tor have been impris­oned.

Giv­en the cir­cum­stances, we believe that the crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of Mr. Kanstantsin Zalatykh and Mr. Ali­ak­san­dr (Ales) Liubenchuk is polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and aimed at stop­ping or chang­ing the nature of their legit­i­mate pub­lic activ­i­ties in the sphere of non-vio­lent exer­cise of free­dom of expres­sion and dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion.

Based on this and guid­ed by para. 2.1 and 3.1 of the Guide­lines on the Def­i­n­i­tion of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers adopt­ed at III Belaru­sian Human Rights Forum, we, human rights defend­ers, rec­og­nize Mr. Kanstantsin Zalatykh and Mr. Ali­ak­san­dr (Ales) Liubenchuk as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and call on the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to:

• the imme­di­ate release of Mr. Kanstantsin Zalatykh and Mr. Ali­ak­san­dr (Ales) Liubenchuk and the ter­mi­na­tion of crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion against them;

• refrain from using crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion as an instru­ment of pres­sure on free­dom of expres­sion, or oth­er rights and free­doms;

• imme­di­ate­ly release all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, as well as oth­er indi­vid­u­als detained in con­nec­tion with their exer­cise of free­dom of peace­ful assem­bly in the post-elec­tion peri­od, and stop polit­i­cal repres­sion in the coun­try. 

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists

Human Rights Cen­ter Vias­na

Lawtrend

Legal ini­tia­tive

PEN Belarus