Former videographer Andrei Tolchyn charged with extremism

It’s unclear what exact offens­es Andrei Tolchyn is alleged to have com­mit­ted because the accu­sa­tion is con­fi­den­tial. The detainee can’t men­tion it in his cor­re­spon­dence since the pen­i­ten­tiary cen­sors his let­ters. Tolchyn’s lawyer is also lim­it­ed by the secre­cy order.

The 64-year-old jour­nal­ist suf­fers from arte­r­i­al hyper­ten­sion and pain in his legs.

The Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty declared Andrei Tolchin a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.

Law enforcers arrest­ed Tolchyn on Sep­tem­ber 23 of this year. The day fol­low­ing the arrest, author­i­ties searched his apart­ment, where he resided with his spouse. Inves­ti­ga­tors seized com­put­er equip­ment and oth­er dig­i­tal media.

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Andrei Tolchyn became a promi­nent fig­ure in the demo­c­ra­t­ic com­mu­ni­ty of Homel dur­ing the 1990s when Belarus was gain­ing inde­pen­dence. He worked as a ser­vice engi­neer at the radio fac­to­ry Pra­men and took part in the inde­pen­dent trade union move­ment, cam­paign­ing for the safe­guard­ing of work­ers’ rights. Andrei was elect­ed as a deputy of the Homel City Coun­cil. This coun­cil, one of two in Belarus, pub­licly opposed the com­mu­nist coup in Moscow and cel­e­brat­ed the Repub­lic of Belarus’s procla­ma­tion of inde­pen­dence in August 1991.

Andrei worked in the Pub­lic and Media Rela­tions Com­mit­tee dur­ing his tenure in the Coun­cil. He was a mem­ber of the Unit­ed Civ­il Par­ty, which has been dis­solved by the author­i­ties. He used to lead the party’s city orga­ni­za­tion for a long time and over­saw the oper­a­tions of char­i­ta­ble foun­da­tions that pro­mote democ­ra­cy. He was inter­mit­tent­ly unem­ployed.

After the 2010 pres­i­den­tial elec­tions, Tolchyn col­lab­o­rat­ed with inde­pen­dent media out­lets as a video­g­ra­ph­er and was fined sev­er­al times and even admin­is­tra­tive­ly detained. In 2020, Tolchyn got arrest­ed along with jour­nal­ist Larysa Shchyrako­va while doc­u­ment­ing demon­stra­tions, under the alle­ga­tion of involve­ment in mass riots.

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