Ex-RFE/RL Photographer Gets 13 Days In Jail For ‘Disobedience To Police’

Police searched Hry­dz­in’s apart­ment on Feb­ru­ary 4 in a «mass dis­or­der» case linked to anti-gov­ern­ment protests that has thou­sands of sus­pects, accord­ing to inves­ti­ga­tors.

Hry­dz­in’s rel­a­tives have said the pho­tog­ra­ph­er stopped com­mu­ni­cat­ing with them on Feb­ru­ary 4. They added that when they came to Hrydzin’s apart­ment on Feb­ru­ary 6, they saw evi­dence that it had been searched, with Hry­dz­in’s belong­ings scat­tered on the floor while his lap­top and cam­era were miss­ing.

The rel­a­tives learned lat­er that Hry­dzin was tak­en to Min­sk’s noto­ri­ous Akrestsi­na deten­tion cen­ter, where many inmates have said they were tor­tured.

Hry­dzin worked as a pho­to cor­re­spon­dent for RFE/RL’s Belarus Ser­vice until August 29, 2020, when author­i­ties revoked his accred­i­ta­tion.

He was arrest­ed in 2020 for film­ing a protest that arose after a dis­put­ed pres­i­den­tial elec­tion and served 11 days in deten­tion.

The protest ral­lies took place after author­i­tar­i­an leader Alyak­san­dr Lukashen­ka claimed vic­to­ry in the elec­tion, which the oppo­si­tion says was rigged.

Hry­dzin won the Belarus Press Pho­to con­test in 2015 and his pic­tures have been pub­lished by world agen­cies and mass media.