Journalist Ihar Ilyash detained for «interviewing sources recognized as extremist organizations in Belarus»

Ihar Ilyash shared this infor­ma­tion in a video while hand­cuffed. The video was pub­lished by a Telegram chan­nel close to one of the secu­ri­ty ser­vices.

Ihar Ilyash. Pho­to: «Novy Chas»

The news of the arrest of jour­nal­ist Ihar Ilyash, the hus­band of the impris­oned jour­nal­ist Kat­siary­na Andreye­va, became known on the morn­ing of Octo­ber 22. His pho­to in hand­cuffs was shared by pro-gov­ern­ment Telegram chan­nels.

A mes­sage from one of the Telegram chan­nels linked to the secu­ri­ty forces sug­gest­ed that Ihar Ilyash’s arrest was some­how con­nect­ed to the Bel­sat tele­vi­sion chan­nel. A sub­se­quent mes­sage threat­ened to arrest the jour­nal­ist’s friends who alleged­ly informed inde­pen­dent media about his sit­u­a­tion.

On the evening of Octo­ber 22, the same Telegram chan­nel linked to the secu­ri­ty forces pub­lished a video with Ihar Ilyash. In the descrip­tion of the video, the authors of the TG resource write: «Fol­low­ing the path of his wife. This Pol­ish jour­nal­ist-spy was involved in coop­er­at­ing with extrem­ist for­ma­tions and col­lect­ing infor­ma­tion for for­eign intel­li­gence ser­vices. The accom­plice has been impris­oned for extrem­ism and trea­son for a long time, while her hus­band remained free because his activ­i­ties were metic­u­lous­ly doc­u­ment­ed. We are cor­rect­ing this out­ra­geous injus­tice.»

In the footage of the raid on Ilyash’s apart­ment, at least four mem­bers of the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs’ spe­cial forces unit «Berkut» in full riot gear can be seen detain­ing the jour­nal­ist. And, of course, there are the oper­a­tors and scriptwrit­ers behind such videos.

In the video, Ilyash says that he was an employ­ee of the Bel­sat TV chan­nel until July 2021, and lat­er he became a free­lance jour­nal­ist. «Dur­ing these years, I repeat­ed­ly gave inter­views to var­i­ous media, includ­ing sources rec­og­nized as ‘extrem­ist for­ma­tions’ in Belarus. That is why I was arrest­ed,» Ihar Ilyash said.

He added that for­eign media, includ­ing Ukrain­ian ones, had approached him for inter­views and com­ments. For exam­ple, he was con­tact­ed by «a Ukrain­ian jour­nal­ist who was inves­ti­gat­ing the pos­si­ble involve­ment of Belaru­sian troops in the inva­sion of Ukraine.»

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

The case of Katsiaryna Andreyeva

Kat­siary­na Andreye­va worked as a jour­nal­ist for the Bel­sat tele­vi­sion chan­nel. She and oper­a­tor Darya Chultso­va were arrest­ed in Novem­ber 2020 dur­ing a live stream from the «Square of Changes» (a court­yard on Charvi­ako­va Street in Min­sk), where peo­ple gath­ered to hon­or the mem­o­ry of mur­dered activist Raman Ban­daren­ka.

In Feb­ru­ary 2021, the Frun­zen­s­ki Dis­trict Court of Min­sk found Kat­siary­na Andreye­va and Darya Chultso­va guilty of «orga­niz­ing actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order» (Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code) and sen­tenced them to two years in a penal colony. While in deten­tion, a new crim­i­nal case was opened against Kat­siary­na for trea­son. On July 13, 2022, the Homel Region­al Court hand­ed down an eight-year prison sen­tence to the jour­nal­ist. Giv­en her pre­vi­ous con­vic­tion, the final sen­tence was set at eight years and three months.

After the tri­al, in the fall of 2022, the Supreme Court changed the word­ing of the charges – replac­ing «reveal­ing state secrets to a for­eign orga­ni­za­tion or state» in Kat­siary­na Andreye­va’s sen­tence with «espi­onage».

Kat­siary­na Andreye­va is cur­rent­ly serv­ing her sen­tence in the Homel penal colony No. 4. She is on the list of «extrem­ists».