Belsat journalists detained again, this time in Salihorsk

Bel­sat jour­nal­ists Alyak­san­dr Barazen­ka and Hali­na Abakunchyk were detained after their meet­ing with Vik­tar Babary­ka in Sal­i­horsk. About three hours lat­er, they were released from the police sta­tion.

Before the deten­tion, Alyak­san­dr Barazen­ka and Hali­na Abakunchyk man­aged to com­mu­ni­cate that they were chased by a minibus with tran­sit num­ber plates at the exit of the city. Lat­er, their car was stopped by the traf­fic police, after which a third car arrived.

It is known that the jour­nal­ists were detained by Lieu­tenant Colonel Aleh Shalokha, head of the law enforce­ment and pre­ven­tion depart­ment of Sal­i­horsk police. Appar­ent­ly, they are charged under Arti­cle 22.9 of the Code of Admin­is­tra­tive Offences (Vio­la­tion of the Law on Mass Media) – for work with­out accred­i­ta­tion.

At about 10 p.m., Alyak­san­dr Barazen­ka was released. At 11 p.m., a police­man on duty report­ed that Hali­na Abakunchyk was also released.

***

In recent months, our jour­nal­ists have been repeat­ed­ly detained in dif­fer­ent cities of Belarus. This hap­pened after pick­ets to col­lect sig­na­tures for nom­i­na­tion of can­di­dates for the elec­tions.

Fines to Journalists for Violating Article 22.9 of the Administrative Code (Chart) (Updated)