Former RFE/RL Photographer Detained In Minsk On Unknown Charges

Rel­a­tives of pho­tog­ra­ph­er Uladz Hry­dzin told RFE/RL on Feb­ru­ary 6 that he was tak­en to the Akrestsi­na deten­tion cen­ter and his tri­al would take place on Feb­ru­ary 7.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAZh) also said police arrest­ed Hry­dzin, accord­ing to AP.

Hry­dzin stopped com­mu­ni­cat­ing on Feb­ru­ary 4, accord­ing to his rel­a­tives, who went to his house on Feb­ru­ary 6 and saw evi­dence that it had been searched. They said things were scat­tered on the floor and his lap­top and cam­era were miss­ing. 

The rel­a­tives said they sub­se­quent­ly found out he had been tak­en to the 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worked as a pho­to cor­re­spon­dent for RFE/RL’s Belarus Ser­vice until August 29, 2020, when his accred­i­ta­tion was revoked. Since then he has worked as a free­lancer.

The BAZh also said Hry­dzin had been tak­en to pre­tri­al deten­tion in Min­sk but did­n’t iden­ti­ty the facil­i­ty by name. It said no infor­ma­tion was avail­able on charges against him and that his lawyer had not been able to meet with him, accord­ing to AP.

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

The protest ral­ly took place after author­i­tar­i­an leader Alyak­san­dr Lukashen­ka claimed vic­to­ry in the elec­tion, which the oppo­si­tion and many West­ern gov­ern­ments said was rigged.

Hry­dzin has won the Belarus Press Pho­to con­test, and his pic­tures were pub­lished by inter­na­tion­al agen­cies and mass media.

Рэпрэсіі супраць журналістаў у 2022 годзе (табліца, спіс зняволеных)