Detained Naša Niva employee Andrej Skurko is thought to have COVID-19

Accord­ing to Naša Niva, Mr. Skurko’s cell has been quar­an­tined.

Jour­nal­ist Alieh Hruzdzilovič, who spent some time with Mr. Skurko in the same cell before being released on July 26, told Naša Niva that when Mr. Skurko had been trans­ferred to Pre­tri­al Deten­tion Cen­ter No. 1 from the deten­tion facil­i­ty on Akresci­na Street, an X‑ray had revealed a spot on his lungs. On July 18, Mr. Skurko devel­oped a fever and a cough. He was giv­en parac­eta­mol pills.     

Mr. Skurko has dia­betes and needs four insulin injec­tions a day. Dur­ing the 13 days in the deten­tion facil­i­ty on Akresci­na Street, he did not have spe­cial meals and did not receive food parcels from his rel­a­tives.  

Apart from Mr. Skurko, Naša Niva Edi­tor in Chief Jahor Mar­ci­novič is also cur­rent­ly held in Pre­tri­al Deten­tion Cen­ter No. 1 on Val­adarska­ha Street.

Messrs. Mar­ci­novič and Skurko were arrest­ed on July 8 along with Naša Niva 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.