Another Belarusian blogger accused of playing part in ‘public order violations’

Dzmit­ry Kazlou was detained on June 10 togeth­er with Euro­pean Belarus activists Art­sy­om Chernyak and Mikhail Ban­daren­ka. Notably, just few hours ear­li­er, Belaru­sian Pres­i­dent Alyak­san­dr Lukashen­ka promised to pre­vent ‘coups or maid­an-like rev­o­lu­tions’ in the coun­try. On the fol­low­ing day, he was sen­tenced to 20 days of admin­is­tra­tive arrest. He was to have been released on June 30, but he is still being held in the tem­po­rary deten­tion facil­i­ty in Min­sk.

Since the start of the elec­tion cam­paign, 17 Belaru­sians have been charged under Art. 342 and placed behind bars: might-have-been pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Syarhei Tsikhanous­ki, blog­gers Uladz­imir Nyaron­s­ki, Syarhei Pya­trukhin, Alyak­san­dr Kabanau, Uladz­imir Tsy­hanovich, Dzmit­ry Kazlou, Ihar Losik; the ‘Hrod­na inci­dent’ detainees Zmitser Fur­manau, Vyarhi­ly ushak, Art­sy­om Sakau, Alyak­san­dr Ara­novich, Uladz­imir Navu­mik, Vasil babrous­ki, Yauhen Raznichen­ka, Uladz­imir Kni­ha, Andrey Novikau, and politi­cian Mikalai Statke­vich. 13 of them have been recog­nised as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers by Belaru­sian human rights watch­dogs.

More­over, on June 11, Alyak­san­dr Lukashenka’s would be rival Vik­tar Babary­ka was placed in the KGB prison; on Mon­day, the Belaru­sian Inte­ri­or Min­istry launched a probe into ‘ille­gal activ­i­ties’ in which anoth­er pres­i­den­tial wannabe Valery Tsap­kala was alleged­ly involved.

Last Thurs­day, Belaru­sian Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Yury Karayeu fault­ed Telegram chan­nels and even Radio Free Europe for ‘coor­di­nat­ing protests’ in Belarus over their cov­er­ing pick­ets and ral­lies. Accord­ing to the human rights centre Vias­na, more than 360 peo­ple were detained at the ‘sol­i­dar­i­ty chain’ ral­lies (as well as before and after the ral­lies), held through­out the coun­try from 18 to 21 June.

More­over, on the same day, the Belaru­sian leader slammed ‘pup­peteers from Poland and Rus­sia’ who are ‘behind spread­ing fakes’ about him and his fam­i­ly on the Inter­net, includ­ing on Telegram. On the back of it, Ihar Losik, a blog­ger and admin­is­tra­tor of one of the most pop­u­lar Telegram chan­nels in Belarus, was detained and tak­en into cus­tody.