Andrej Dyńko of Naša Niva released on pledge to report when ordered

Accord­ing to a report on Naša Niva’s Telegram chan­nel, on Wednes­day morn­ing, Mr. Dynko, 47, was brought to the office of the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee from the deten­tion cen­ter on Acreści­na Street and allowed to go home after ques­tion­ing.

He is thought to remain a sus­pect in pro­ceed­ings under Part Two of the Crim­i­nal Code’s Arti­cle 216, which penal­izes “dam­age with­out theft.”

The fam­i­ly of Mr. Dyńko was told that he had caused dam­age esti­mat­ed at 3,500 rubels (some $1,400) to Minen­er­ha (Min­sk pow­er util­i­ty) by pay­ing the rent at a rate for house­holds, where­as the rent should have been paid at a rate for legal enti­ties.

Naša Niva Edi­tor in Chief Jahor Mar­ci­novič and Andrej Skurko, head of the pop­u­lar online publication’s adver­tis­ing depart­ment, were not released Wednes­day on the expi­ra­tion of 72 hours.

Messrs. Mar­ci­novič, Skurko and Dyńko and Chief Accoun­tant Voĺha Rakovič were arrest­ed on July 8 fol­low­ing search­es of their homes, Naša Niva’s edi­to­r­i­al office and its account­ing office.

Ini­tial­ly, they were said to be detained as sus­pects in pro­ceed­ings under Part One of the Crim­i­nal Code’s Arti­cle 342, which penal­izes “prepa­ra­tions for actions gross­ly dis­turb­ing pub­lic order.”

Ms. Rakovič was released on her own recog­ni­zance on July 16.

Messrs. Mar­ci­novič, Skurko and Dyńko were not for­mal­ly charged with­in the first 10 days of their deten­tion. Instead, on July 18, they were put in cus­tody for 72 hours as sus­pects in pro­ceed­ings under a dif­fer­ent Crim­i­nal Code arti­cle.