Six Belsat journalists detained in Maladechna and Lida, equipment confiscated

Zmitser Mitske­vich and Dzia­n­is Dzi­u­ba were arrest­ed when livestream­ing from the cam­paign ral­ly in Maladech­na. The police offi­cers did not explain the rea­son for deten­tion and did not intro­duce them­selves. They ordered to switch off the cam­era right away. Lat­er, the police dam­aged their cam­era.

Mitske­vich and Dzi­u­ba were tak­en to the police depart­ment. .

Maladech­na police told their col­leagues they were exam­in­ing the case under Art. 22.9 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Code. When told they had kept the jour­nal­ists for more than 3 hours, they just hung up.

Mitske­vich and Dzi­u­ba were released at about 11 p.m.  They are charged under Art. 22.9 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Code. Their smart­phones and oth­er equip­ment were tak­en for exam­i­na­tion. 

Also, Maladech­na police detained jour­nal­ists Maria Art­sy­basha­va and Ales Silich. Ales Silich was fined 5 base val­ues for a white-red-white stick­er on the car (Arti­cle 18.12 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Code). Then the jour­nal­ists were let go.

In the evening the police detained Bel­sat jour­nal­ists Uladz­imir Luniou and Hali­na Abakunchyk in Lida. They were livestream­ing from a cam­paign ral­ly of Lukashenka’s rival Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya. These ral­lies have been per­mit­ted by the author­i­ties.

Hali­na Abakunchyk and Uladz­imir Luniou were released after mid­night. The police took their smart­phones and drew up reports under Art. 22.9 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Code.

The jour­nal­ists were kept in the police sta­tion for about five hours. Hali­na and Uladz­imir filed a com­plaint about the actions of the police offi­cers.