Authorities reject request for release of prominent journalist Andrej Skurko

In their request, Mr. Skurko’s elder­ly par­ents not­ed that they had been left with­out help after their son’s arrest.

They also said that their son had insulin depen­dent dia­betes and that jail con­di­tions and the lack of a spe­cial diet were “ruin­ing his health.”

In addi­tion, Mr. Skurko has an 18-month-old son.

In its reply, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee said that there were suf­fi­cient grounds to believe that Mr. Skurko might hide from pros­e­cu­tion and hin­der the inves­ti­ga­tion of the crim­i­nal case against him, “includ­ing by unlaw­ful­ly influ­enc­ing peo­ple involved in the crim­i­nal process, con­ceal­ing or fal­si­fy­ing infor­ma­tion rel­e­vant to the case, fail­ing to present him­self for no good rea­son at the request of the body in charge of the crim­i­nal process.”

Ear­li­er, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee turned down a request for the release of Naša Niva Edi­tor in Chief Jahor Mar­ci­novič, although “two renowned Belaru­sian schol­ars” had vouched for him.

As Naša Niva report­ed, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee gave no expla­na­tion for its deci­sion.

Messrs. Skurko and Mar­ci­novič were arrest­ed in Min­sk on July 8. They were said to be sus­pects in a crim­i­nal case 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.”

The two men were not for­mal­ly charged with­in the first 10 days of their deten­tion. Instead, they were for­mal­ly rear­rest­ed and put in cus­tody as sus­pects in pro­ceed­ings under a dif­fer­ent Crim­i­nal Code arti­cle.

Naša Niva was accused of caus­ing dam­age in the amount of 3,500 rubels (some $1,400) to the ener­gy min­istry by pay­ing util­i­ty bills for its office at rates charged for indi­vid­u­als, not legal enti­ties, in the peri­od from 2017 to 2021.

Messrs. Skurko and Mar­ci­novič remain in cus­tody as per­sons accused in the case.

They have been declared polit­i­cal pris­on­ers by Belaru­sian human rights groups.