Intex-Press editor under administrative charges, facing criminal prosecution

Uladz­imir Yanuke­vich

Uladz­imir Yanuke­vich, the edi­tor-in-chief of Intex-Press, Baranavichy inde­pen­dent news­pa­per, was ques­tioned by police for 4.5 hours on April 21. The police drew up two admin­is­tra­tive pro­to­cols and are check­ing into the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a a crim­i­nal case. The rea­son was an inter­view with the for­mer can­di­date for pres­i­den­cy Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya. The jour­nal­ist who inter­viewed her has also been sum­moned for ques­tion­ing.

Yanuke­vich got the sum­mons on April 19. In did­n’t say what case it was about.

At the city police depart­ment, he learned that it was about the inter­view with Tsikhanouskaya, pub­lished by the news­pa­per on April 14 and post­ed on its web­site. In this regard, the police вкуц гз two admin­is­tra­tive pro­to­cols for vio­la­tion of the leg­is­la­tion on mass media under Art. 23.5 Part 4 and Part 5 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Code — one against the “Intex — press” Pub­lish­ing House (Yanuke­vich is its CEO) and anoth­er against Yanuke­vich as the own­er of intex-press.by web­site.

More­over, Yanuke­vich learned that the police were exam­in­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of open­ing crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings under Art. 361 of the Crim­i­nal Code (“Calls to actions aimed at caus­ing harm to nation­al secu­ri­ty of the Repub­lic of Belarus”).

He was ques­tioned by police major Mikalai Kapel­ka in admin­is­tra­tive pro­ceed­ings, and by police major Ali­ak­sei Paplaus­ki — as part of the check on the poten­tial crim­i­nal case.

The author of the arti­cle Lud­mi­la Stsi­atsko is to be ques­tioned by the police on 23 April as a wit­ness. Her sum­mons that the police passed through her chief edi­tor does not indi­cate the case that she is going to be ques­tioned on.  The police refused to pro­vide that infor­ma­tion, either. 

On April 15, Yanuke­vich already received a warn­ing for the same inter­view with Tsikhanouskaya from Baranavichy Inter­dis­trict Pros­e­cu­tor’s Office. 

“We are always go by the inter­ests of our read­ers and their right to receive infor­ma­tion. This inter­view was no excep­tion. We don’t under­stand what words of the inter­view exact­ly vio­lat­ed the law. The police could not explain it to me, either. It feels like it’s not the con­tent, but the very fact of this inter­view that caused got us in trou­ble. We believe this is pres­sure on the free­dom of speech, Uladz­imir Yanuke­vich told BAJ.

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Part 4 of Arti­cle 23.5 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Code: Dis­sem­i­na­tion by mass media of infor­ma­tion, which is pro­hib­it­ed for dis­sem­i­na­tion in mass media in accor­dance with leg­isla­tive acts (…) pro­vides for pun­ish­ment of a legal enti­ty with a fine of up to 200 basic val­ues.

Part 5 of Arti­cle 23.5 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Code: Dis­sem­i­na­tion by the own­er of an Inter­net resource not reg­is­tered as online media of infor­ma­tion, pro­hib­it­ed for dis­sem­i­na­tion on Inter­net resources in accor­dance with leg­isla­tive acts (…) pro­vides for a fine of up to 20 basic val­ues for the own­er, and up to 100 basic val­ues for the legal enti­ty.