RFE/RL Belarus

No.

Date

Form of repres­sion

Descrip­tion

29 August 2020

Revo­ca­tion of for­eign media jour­nal­ist press cre­den­tials

By deci­sion of the Min­istry of For­eign Affairs of Belarus, the for­eign media press cre­den­tials of Ales Dashchyn­s­ki, Aleh Hruzdzilovich, Uladz­imir Hry­dzin, and Ali­ak­san­dra Dynko were revoked, which deprived them of the per­mis­sion to legal­ly work in Belarus as Radio Lib­er­ty Belarus cor­re­spon­dents.

2 Octo­ber 2020

Revo­ca­tion of for­eign media jour­nal­ist press cre­den­tials

By the deci­sion of the Min­istry of For­eign Affairs of Belarus, the rest of the RFE/RL Belarus staff were also deprived of their press cre­den­tials — all pre­vi­ous­ly issued for­eign jour­nal­ist cre­den­tials were revoked. Despite numer­ous attempts, RFE/RL Belarus jour­nal­ists did not receive new press cre­den­tials.

16 July 2021

Search in the edi­to­r­i­al office

The edi­to­r­i­al offices and RFE/RL Belarus jour­nal­ists’ homes were searched.

Law enforce­ment offi­cers dis­man­tled video sur­veil­lance cam­eras on the floor and broke down three doors in the Radio Lib­er­ty Belarus Min­sk office. Stu­dio equip­ment was seized dur­ing the search.

Search­es took place in the homes of jour­nal­ists Aleh Hruzdzilovich, Ina Studzin­skaya, and Ales Dashchyn­s­ki; the reporters were detained.

Hruzdzilovich and Studzin­skaya were released after 10 days of deten­tion; Dashchyn­s­ki — a week lat­er.

3 Decem­ber 2021

Declar­ing con­tent extrem­ist

The Tsen­tral­ny Dis­trict Court of Min­sk rec­og­nized RFE/RL Belarus con­tent, social media, and mes­sen­ger ser­vices as extrem­ist.

Now read­ers may be held admin­is­tra­tive­ly liable under Part 2 Arti­cle 19.11 of the Admin­is­tra­tive Offens­es Code (a fine of $100–300) for dis­sem­i­nat­ing infor­ma­tion link­ing to RFE/RL Belarus resources.

23 Decem­ber 2021

Recog­ni­tion as an extrem­ist for­ma­tion

Accord­ing to the Deci­sion No. 21EK of the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs of 23 Decem­ber 2021 «On rec­og­niz­ing a group of cit­i­zens as an extrem­ist for­ma­tion and ban­ning its activ­i­ties», «a group of cit­i­zens unit­ed through the RFE/RL Belarus web­site, Telegram chan­nel, YouTube chan­nel, and oth­er online resources car­ry out extrem­ist activ­i­ties.»

RFE/RL Belarus was includ­ed in the Reg­is­ter of Orga­ni­za­tions, For­ma­tions, and Indi­vid­ual Entre­pre­neurs Involved in Extrem­ist Activ­i­ty under No. 24.

Estab­lish­ment or par­tic­i­pa­tion in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion is a crim­i­nal offense pun­ish­able by impris­on­ment from 2 to 10 years (Arti­cle 361¹ of the Crim­i­nal Code of the Repub­lic of Belarus).

5.

25 Novem­ber 2021

Deten­tion of jour­nal­ists

Andrei Kuznechyk, an RFE/RL Belarus free­lance reporter, was arrest­ed.

His apart­ment was searched. The deten­tion allowed the law enforcers to cap­ture con­trol of the RFE/RL Belarus Telegram chan­nel for a short time.

The next day Zavad­s­ki Dis­trict Court of Min­sk sen­tenced Andrei Kuznechyk to 10 days of deten­tion, but on Decem­ber 5 he was not released and instead, was again detained for 10 days by the same court. He was not released on 15 Decem­ber either.

On 23 Decem­ber, Andrei’s rel­a­tives were informed that a crim­i­nal case had been opened against him. Lat­er it became known that the RFE/RL Belarus free­lancer was accused of «estab­lish­ing an extrem­ist for­ma­tion» (Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code).

On 8 June, Mahilou Region­al Court found Andrei Kuznechyk guilty and sen­tenced him to six years of impris­on­ment.

6.

23 Decem­ber 2021

Deten­tion of jour­nal­ists

Masked peo­ple raid­ed the home of Aleh Hruzdzilovich and arrest­ed him. Aleh was put in cus­tody as a sus­pect in the crim­i­nal case for «Orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order, or active par­tic­i­pa­tion in them» (Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code).

On 28 Decem­ber 2021, it became known that Aleh was charged with par­tic­i­pa­tion in unau­tho­rized protest action when his press cre­den­tials had already been revoked by the For­eign Min­istry of Belarus.

He was charged with three counts of par­tic­i­pa­tion in «mass riots» dur­ing the protests against the rigged elec­tions of 2020 and vio­lence.

On 3 March 2022, Aleh Hruzdzilovich was sen­tenced to 1.5 years of impris­on­ment by the Mask­ous­ki Dis­trict Court of Min­sk.