• Actual
  • Law and the media
  • Helpful
  • Work areas and campaigns
  • Reviews and monitoring
  • Tatsiana Pytsko prosecuted for helping her husband, videographer Viachaslau Lazarau

    Tatsiana Pytsko and Viachaslau Lazarau are now in Vitsebsk pre-trial detention center, and their one-year-old daughter will soon be transferred from the regional children's hospital to an orphanage.

    Tat­siana Pyt­sko was arrest­ed on 6 June. A few days lat­er, she was charged under Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (cre­at­ing or par­tic­i­pat­ing in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion).

    The rea­sons for the arrest became known after Tat­siana’s case was brought before the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee. The inves­ti­ga­tors were inter­est­ed in who filmed Viachaslau Laza­rau, who ini­ti­at­ed the film­ing and who com­mis­sioned the video mate­r­i­al. The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee found the cam­era­man’s archive, which was stored on his com­put­ers and cell phone. They also found video footage with Tat­siana Pyt­sko. Accord­ing to the inves­ti­ga­tion, she par­tic­i­pat­ed in the activ­i­ties of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion.

    Her hus­band, Viachaslau Laza­rau, was charged under Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code (pro­mot­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties) for asso­ci­a­tion with a non-state media out­let rec­og­nized as an extrem­ist for­ma­tion in Belarus.

    Viachaslau Laza­rau, a free­lance video­g­ra­ph­er, was detained on 9 Feb­ru­ary this year. Secu­ri­ty forces searched his home and seized his office equip­ment. He has been detained ever since.

    Human rights activists believe that the per­se­cu­tion of his wife is an addi­tion­al fac­tor putting pres­sure on the detainee.

    On March 28, the human rights com­mu­ni­ty rec­og­nized the free­lance cam­era­man from Vit­seb­sk as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er. On June 21, Tat­siana Pyt­sko received the same sta­tus.

     

    Read more:

    “We stand in full solidarity with our brave colleagues!” The IFJ keeps torch of solidarity with journalist prisoners burning

    BAJ piece on dismissed state TV employees deemed “extremist”

    “If one of us is imprisoned, the other one takes the child and leaves the country.” The key from the report of human rights activists on the psychological state of political emigrants

    The most important news and materials in our Telegram channel — subscribe!
    @bajmedia
    Most read
    Every day send to your mailbox: actual offers (grants, vacancies, competitions, scholarships), announcements of events (lectures, performances, presentations, press conferences) and good content.

    Subscribe

    * indicates required

    By subscribing to the newsletter, you agree to the Privacy Policy