Journalist Ihar Ilyash arrested in Belarus

The Vias­na Human Rights Cen­ter reports on the arrest of jour­nal­ist Ihar Ilyash in Belarus. His pho­to in hand­cuffs was pub­lished by pro-gov­ern­ment Telegram chan­nels.

Ihar Ilyash is a jour­nal­ist and the hus­band of jour­nal­ist Kat­siary­na Andreye­va (Bakhvala­va), who has been impris­oned since 2020

The details and cir­cum­stances of Ihar Ilyash’s deten­tion remain unknown to human rights defend­ers. A pro-gov­ern­ment Telegram chan­nel pub­lished a pho­to of Ilyash, sug­gest­ing that his deten­tion was some­how con­nect­ed to the Bel­sat TV chan­nel. A sub­se­quent mes­sage threat­ened to arrest the jour­nal­ist’s friends, who alleged­ly informed inde­pen­dent media about his sit­u­a­tion, Pozirk report­ed.

Ihar Ilyash is a jour­nal­ist and the hus­band of jour­nal­ist Kat­siary­na Andreye­va (Bakhvala­va), who has been impris­oned since 2020. In Novem­ber 2020, Ilyash was detained for 15 days for «par­tic­i­pat­ing in a pick­et.» In July 2021, he was also detained for 15 days dur­ing mass search­es and arrests of inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists across Belarus. His apart­ment was searched, and his equip­ment and books were con­fis­cat­ed.

Kat­siary­na Andreye­va worked as a jour­nal­ist for the Bel­sat chan­nel. She and oper­a­tor Darya Chultso­va were arrest­ed in Novem­ber 2020 dur­ing a live stream from the «Square of Changes.» The court sen­tenced the jour­nal­ists to two years’ impris­on­ment. Dur­ing her deten­tion, a new crim­i­nal case was opened against Kat­siary­na for trea­son, for which she was sen­tenced to 8 years and 3 months in prison. Kat­siary­na Andreye­va is serv­ing her sen­tence in the Homel penal colony No. 4. She is on the list of «extrem­ists».