Radio Svaboda Journalist Fined 575 BYN

Hali­na Abakunchyk was detained while she was report­ing from the yesterday’s protest action in Orsha, Viteb­sk region. She spent the night in a cell; the tri­al took place today after mid­day.

The reporter says she has been treat­ed rude­ly, the nor­mal pro­ce­dures were not observed: she was rude­ly detained and forced to get into the car; she spent three hours in a cell with­out charges; per­son­al things were seized, and only then she saw the first pro­to­col.

The reporter plead­ed non-guilty. She argued that she was per­form­ing an edi­to­r­i­al task; she attempt­ed to show the journalist’s cre­den­tials, but the four spe­cial forces’ offi­cers dis­re­gard­ed the intro­duc­tion and dragged the reporter to the car.

The judge dis­missed the motion to call the journalist’s wit­ness­es.

The jour­nal­ist says the actions are law­less­ness and the police are wag­ing a war against infor­ma­tion.

Police Inter­fere with Jour­nal­ists Work at Region­al Protest Actions