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Viasna human rights center has designated May 21 as a Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners in Belarus. On this day two years ago, political prisoner Vitold Ashurak died in the Škloŭ penal colony No. 17. No criminal proceedings have been initiated following his death, while the situation with political prisoners has significantly deteriorated. Last year, the Day of Political Prisoners theme was the yellow tag used in colonies to mark inmates. It was Ashurak who first talked about it in his letter. This year human rights defenders propose to make the theme of the Day of Solidarity with political prisoners in Belarus letters and the right to correspondence, which the Belarusian authorities have deprived hundreds of political prisoners. Viasna calls on people to express solidarity with all political prisoners on May 21, draw the attention of the Belarusian and international community to their problems, and once again demand the release of all political prisoners from the authorities. The Belarusian Association of Journalists joins the events! The authorities are trying to destroy independent journalism in Belarus. Support the Solidarity Marathon!

The participants of the conference of the European Federation of Journalists joined the marathon of solidarity with Belarusian colleagues, which was launched by the Belarusian Association of Journalists and the Lithuanian Union of Journalists in Vilnius.  

Owning a bank account in Ukraine as a Belarusian journalist is still problematic. After the war started, they were frozen, and attempts to withdraw cash were mostly unsuccessful, said journalist Ales Minau, who has been living in Kyiv since late 2021.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists became aware of another case of extrajudicial deprivation of the domain name of a non-state media outlet in the Belarusian segment of the Internet. This time the editorial board of EX-PRESS.BY came under attack, an Internet resource reporting on the events in Barysau and Zhodzina.

According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, on 10 April Minsk City Court considered the cases of the persons who acted as guarantors of defendants’ appearance in court in the TUT.BY case. TUT.BY staff members Alena Talkachova and Volha Loika were released from custody on the guarantee of their appearance in court. The guarantors were punished with fines, since the journalists ended up leaving the country before the criminal trial.

The trial against Kanstantsin Zalatykh, director of the economic newspaper Belorusy i Rynok, was held behind closed doors, Euroradio reports.

According to BAJ sources, a criminal case has been started against Aliaksandr Mantsevich, the founder and editor-in-chief of Rehijanalnaja Hazeta. The details of the charges are unknown since the lawyer signed a non-disclosure plea.