Journalist Siarhei Hardziyevich released from detention

Offi­cers of the Drahichyn Police Depart­ment arrest­ed Siarhei Hardziye­vich on 24 Jan­u­ary 2024. The police filed a report against him for vio­lat­ing Arti­cle 19.11 of the Code of Admin­is­tra­tive Offens­es, which pro­hibits the dis­tri­b­u­tion, pro­duc­tion, or stor­age of infor­ma­tion prod­ucts con­tain­ing calls for extrem­ist activ­i­ty.

The jour­nal­ist was detained until the case was heard in court. On Jan­u­ary 26, two days lat­er, Judge Yulia Kuk­sa found Hardziye­vich guilty and sen­tenced him to admin­is­tra­tive deten­tion.

Siarhei Hardziye­vich was per­se­cut­ed for dis­trib­ut­ing ‘extrem­ist prod­ucts’ through social media. The accu­sa­tion stems from shar­ing a pub­li­ca­tion from the Hantsav­it­s­ki Chas online media on 11 Novem­ber 2023, accord­ing to 1pr.by. The police report does not spec­i­fy which pub­li­ca­tion was shared, but it was from an inter­net resource rec­og­nized as ‘extrem­ist’ in Belarus.

Hardziye­vich attempt­ed to prove that his actions did not con­sti­tute an admin­is­tra­tive offense. In court, Siarhei Hardziye­vich stat­ed that he delet­ed his Vkon­tak­te account in Novem­ber of last year. How­ev­er, Judge Yulia Kuk­sa did not take these expla­na­tions into account.

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