“Dozens of Cases Already”: Journalist Pavel Mazheika on searches targeting relatives and friends

For­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er and jour­nal­ist Pavel Mazhei­ka has told BAJ that as part of a new crim­i­nal case opened against him in Belarus, secu­ri­ty ser­vice offi­cers have been vis­it­ing not only his fam­i­ly mem­bers but also his acquain­tances.

Pavel Mazhei­ka. Pho­to: BAJ

The so-called inves­tiga­tive actions began in May — offi­cers first came to his par­ents and rel­a­tives, then moved on to acquain­tances. Pavel has count­ed more than ten such vis­its so far.

“A strange choice of peo­ple,” the jour­nal­ist says. “And it looks less like search­es and more like they’re look­ing for me. They ver­i­fied some things, looked through cer­tain items, but main­ly they were inter­est­ed in whether Mazhei­ka was at the giv­en address. I don’t know whether they took any­thing.”

Pavel has no idea what specif­i­cal­ly prompt­ed the new crim­i­nal case under Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code of the Repub­lic of Belarus (”facil­i­ta­tion of extrem­ist activ­i­ty”). He has not seen any offi­cial doc­u­ments.

In addi­tion, the KGB has been sum­mon­ing the for­mer polit­i­cal prisoner’s rel­a­tives and acquain­tances to infor­mal inter­views, which they have no option to refuse.

“I don’t know the details of those con­ver­sa­tions. But KGB offi­cers are instruct­ing my rel­a­tives to pass along a mes­sage for me to return to Belarus. A strange invi­ta­tion, giv­en that a new crim­i­nal case is simul­ta­ne­ous­ly under way,” Pavel says.

Pavel Mazhei­ka, a civic activist and jour­nal­ist from Hrod­na, was arrest­ed on August 30, 2022, unlaw­ful­ly con­vict­ed over “facil­i­ta­tion of extrem­ist activ­i­ties” and sen­tenced to six years in prison. The sen­tence was hand­ed down on July 26, 2023, by Judge Mak­sim Filatau, known for high-pro­file polit­i­cal ver­dicts.

On Sep­tem­ber 11, 2025, along with oth­er Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, Pavel Mazhei­ka was released from the cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ty and forcibly trans­port­ed out of Belarus to the ter­ri­to­ry of the Euro­pean Union.