BAJ deputy chairman’s home searched in Belarus

On May 17, law enforce­ment offi­cers con­duct­ed a search of the apart­ment in which Barys Haret­s­ki, deputy chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, is reg­is­tered in Min­sk. A crim­i­nal case has been opened against him, but the rea­son for this is not yet known.

Barys Haret­s­ki. Pho­to: BAJ

Barys Haret­s­ki and oth­er lead­ers of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists were forced to leave Belarus in 2021 after law enforce­ment offi­cials raid­ed the organization’s office in Min­sk.

“The police arrived at the apart­ment with a search war­rant. I am unaware of whether any items were seized. The res­i­dents are under­stand­ably fear­ful and reluc­tant to com­mu­ni­cate. How­ev­er, I can con­firm that none of my belong­ings are in the apart­ment, as I have not lived in Belarus for three years.

It’s still very unpleas­ant. It’s clear that this is anoth­er attempt by law enforce­ment agen­cies to force BAJ and inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists to stop our impor­tant work for the Belaru­sian pub­lic,” Barys Haret­s­ki said to BAJ’s press ser­vice.

In 2023, the KGB des­ig­nat­ed the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists as an extrem­ist orga­ni­za­tion. Despite the forced relo­ca­tion, BAJ remains com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing sup­port to Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists and media.

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