Work call turns into police detention for ANTV’s Anton Kazelski

 

Details have emerged about the deten­tion of Anton Kazel­s­ki, a cam­era­man for All-Nation­al TV, whose tri­al began in Min­sk on May 20.

Anton Kazel­s­ki. Pho­to: Social media

Anton Kazel­s­ki is charged with call­ing for sanc­tions and oth­er actions aimed at harm­ing nation­al secu­ri­ty and incit­ing hos­til­i­ty and dis­cord. Svi­at­lana Makare­vich was appoint­ed as the judge. The Vias­na Human Rights Cen­ter spoke to Anton Kazelski’s for­mer cell­mate in the tem­po­rary deten­tion cen­ter and found out what pre­ced­ed the arrest.

Accord­ing to the inter­locu­tor, Anton Kazel­s­ki was arrest­ed in Octo­ber 2023.

The 38-year-old state tele­vi­sion oper­a­tor said in his cell that he received a call from one of his col­leagues ask­ing him to come to work. He was instruct­ed to bring his equip­ment. The deten­tion took place in one of the department’s offices.

Anton Kazel­s­ki came to the atten­tion of the Main Direc­torate for Com­bat­ing Orga­nized Crime and Cor­rup­tion because of his online com­ments in 2020, in which he alleged­ly called for protests. After serv­ing an admin­is­tra­tive deten­tion, he was not released and a crim­i­nal case was opened against him.

The cell­mate stat­ed that Anton denied involve­ment in the protests, which led to him being dubbed the “arm­chair war­rior” by the secu­ri­ty forces.

Anton Kazel­s­ki was employed by the state tele­vi­sion net­work from 2022 to 2023. His final report was aired on the eve of his arrest. He left behind a wife and four chil­dren, the youngest of whom was born after his arrest.

On May 21, the human rights com­mu­ni­ty rec­og­nized Anton Kazel­s­ki as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.