Founder of pro-opposition website extradited from Russia to Belarus

Eduard Palchys, who post­ed mes­sages on 1863x.com under the pseu­do­nym of Jhon Sil­ver, was held in a jail in Rus­si­a’s Bryan­sk for months ear­li­er this year.

He is fac­ing charges of incit­ing racial, eth­nic or reli­gious hatred and dis­trib­ut­ing porno­graph­ic mate­r­i­al. They are linked to his arti­cles on 1863x.com.

The 25-year-old man was iden­ti­fied as Eduard Palchys in an arti­cle post­ed on a web­site asso­ci­at­ed with Rus­si­a’s far-right groups this past April.

Post­ed on sputnikipogrom.com, the arti­cle described the man as a Lida-born eth­nic Pole who spread «anti-Russ­ian» views on his site.

Mr. Palchys was arrest­ed in Min­sk in May last year but was lat­er released on his own recog­ni­zance. He fled Belarus and resur­faced in Ukraine in Octo­ber.

He was arrest­ed in Rus­sia ear­li­er this year after the Belaru­sian police placed him on a want­ed list. The web­site has not been updat­ed since his arrest.

Promi­nent oppo­si­tion and civ­il soci­ety activists have formed a pub­lic com­mit­tee to push for free­dom for Mr. Palchys.