TUT.BY editor opens up about police pressure

The edi­tor of the Finance.tut.by page Zmitser Bobryk wrote on Face­book that after a three-hour inter­ro­ga­tion in the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee about the “BelTA case” on August 7, he signed a coop­er­a­tion agree­ment.

“It was in the build­ing of the IC, where I was kept until late in the evening, that I allowed myself to show weak­ness and be afraid,” Zmitser wrote.

Bobryk also wrote that there were direct threats to him and his rel­a­tives.

“At first I was told that they would dis­close the details of my per­son­al life if I refused to coop­er­ate. It all end­ed with threats to rel­a­tives who would suf­fer. Then I start­ed shak­ing, they threat­ened the most impor­tant things in my life. I wrote a paper on coop­er­a­tion,” the jour­nal­ist wrote.

Accord­ing to Bobryk, he imme­di­ate­ly real­ized that he would not be able to coop­er­ate.

Imme­di­ate­ly after this, the jour­nal­ist was trans­ferred from the sta­tus of a wit­ness to the sta­tus of a sus­pect. Bobryk admits that after this pres­sure on him inten­si­fied.

“I hate that I did not have the courage to refuse to coop­er­ate then and there. I am hap­py I was strong enough to not actu­al­ly do it, “adds Zmitser.

Bel­sat was not able to inter­view Zmitser Bobryk. Human rights activist Ale­na Tanka­cho­va, who is engaged in legal sup­port of the jour­nal­ist and in fact rep­re­sents his inter­ests, stat­ed that he will not talk with jour­nal­ists yet.

On August 7 and 8, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee searched the offices of Tut.by and Bela­PAN and the apart­ments of sev­er­al employ­ees of these out­lets. The inves­ti­ga­tors opened a crim­i­nal case on ille­gal access to paid con­tent of the state media BelTA. They face up to two years in prison.On August 27 it became known that the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee had banned Zmitser Bobryk and oth­er sus­pects in this case from going abroad.

In ear­ly Sep­tem­ber, Alyak­san­dr Lukashen­ka award­ed the inves­ti­ga­tors work­ing on the BelTA case with medals.