Journalist Andrei Paczobut detained for 72 hours as part of case «incitement to hatred»

The search last­ed three hours. The jour­nal­ist’s lawyer was not allowed to come. Jour­nal­ist Andrei Poc­zobut, detained in Hrod­na, was tak­en to the Cen­tral Office of the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee in Min­sk, where he was inter­ro­gat­ed.

Jour­nal­ist Andrei Pac­zobut detained for 72 hours as part of case «incite­ment to hatred»

Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor’s Office has launched the case against Anzha­li­ka Borys, chair of the unreg­is­tered Union of Poles in Belarus, and oth­er indi­vid­u­als. The crim­i­nal case was opened under Part 3 of Art. 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (delib­er­ate actions aimed at incit­ing nation­al and reli­gious hatred on the grounds of eth­nic, reli­gious, lan­guage and oth­er social ori­gin, as well as the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of Nazism, com­mit­ted by a group of per­sons.)

The police states, that the sus­pects have held a series of ille­gal events involv­ing minors in Hrod­nа and oth­er towns of the region, from 2018 to the present. Accord­ing to the Pros­e­cu­tor Gen­er­al’s Office, the events hon­ored the par­tic­i­pants of the «anti-Sovi­et gangs that oper­at­ed dur­ing and after World War II, who robbed and mur­dered civil­ians in Belarus, and destroyed the prop­er­ty.» Thus, they state, the aim was to «reha­bil­i­tate Nazism and jus­ti­fy the geno­cide of the Belaru­sian peo­ple.»

Anzha­li­ka Borys was arrest­ed this week. The next day, she was charged with vio­la­tion of the order of hold­ing mass events and sen­tenced to 15 days of admin­is­tra­tive arrest. Today we learned that the police also start­ed a crim­i­nal case against her.