No release for journalist Andrej Skurko after three months in detention

The news was shared on Face­book by Mr. Skurko’s wife, Pauli­na. 

Accord­ing to Mrs. Skurko, the fact that her hus­band did not walk free on Octo­ber 17 means that his deten­tion had been extend­ed for anoth­er month. 

She point­ed out that her hus­band had nev­er been inter­ro­gat­ed through­out his three-month stay at Pre­tri­al Deten­tion Cen­ter No. 1 on Val­adarska­ha Street in Min­sk. 

“No inves­tiga­tive activ­i­ties involv­ing him have tak­en place. They are hold­ing him there for the sake of hold­ing him, accus­ing him of hav­ing failed to pay util­i­ty bills in full. They can­not let him go to his fam­i­ly: [he is] a ter­ri­ble crim­i­nal who may put pres­sure on wit­ness­es and destroy evi­dence, as an inves­ti­ga­tor told us,” Mrs. Skurko wrote.

Mr. Skurko and Naša Niva Edi­tor in Chief Jahor Mar­ci­novič were arrest­ed in Min­sk on July 8. They were said to be sus­pects in a crim­i­nal case under the Crim­i­nal Code’s Arti­cle 342, which penal­izes “group actions gross­ly dis­turb­ing pub­lic order.”

The two men were not for­mal­ly charged with­in the first 10 days of their deten­tion. Instead, they were rear­rest­ed and put in cus­tody as sus­pects under a dif­fer­ent Crim­i­nal Code arti­cle.

They were lat­er charged with prop­er­ty dam­age under the Crim­i­nal Code’s Arti­cle 216.

In par­tic­u­lar, Naša Niva is accused of caus­ing dam­age in the amount of 3,500 rubels (some $1,400) to the ener­gy min­istry by pay­ing util­i­ty bills for its office at rates charged for indi­vid­u­als, not legal enti­ties, in the peri­od from 2017 to 2021.

Under Arti­cle 216, an indi­vid­ual can be detained with­out tri­al for up to six months.

Messrs. Skurko and Mar­ci­novič have been declared polit­i­cal pris­on­ers by Belaru­sian human rights orga­ni­za­tions.