Homel videographer Andrei Tolchyn detained for 72 hours

Jour­nal­ist and cam­era­man from Homel Andrei Tolchyn was detained for 72 hours in a crim­i­nal case.

The free­lancer has been repeat­ed­ly detained and fined by the author­i­ties. In 2020, Tolchyn was detained along with for­mer jour­nal­ist Larysa Shchyrako­va.

The jour­nal­ist was also arrest­ed in 2021 near the Homel pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter, where he filmed rel­a­tives of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers Mikalai Statke­vich and Ihar Losik, who, along with oth­er defen­dants, were tried that day in the premis­es of the deten­tion cen­ter. The tri­al was held behind closed doors, and the polit­i­cal pris­on­ers were accused of orga­niz­ing mass riots, incit­ing hatred, and obstruct­ing the activ­i­ties of the Cen­tral Elec­tion Com­mit­tee. Tolchyn also record­ed a com­ment by an EU diplo­mats who came to Homel to attend the tri­al. The police con­fis­cat­ed all the videos back then.

The rea­son for the cur­rent deten­tion is unknown.

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