EFJ Demands Release of Journalist Dzianis Ivashyn

A jour­nal­ist with the week­ly news­pa­per Novy Chas, Denis Ivashin pub­lished his lat­est inves­ti­ga­tion into for­mer mem­bers of the “Berkut”, the Ukrain­ian riot police, who were recruit­ed into the Belaru­sian police. He also con­tributes to the Belaru­sian ser­vice of the Inform­Na­palm news web­site.

Five offi­cers of the Belaru­sian intel­li­gence ser­vice (KGB) searched his home and his par­ents’ house, in the sub­urbs of Grod­no. Par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in the journalist’s links with Ukraine, they seized com­put­ers, tele­phones, SIM cards, bank cards, books, note­books and var­i­ous objects. Accord­ing to his wife, Dzia­n­is Ivashyn ”s arrest war­rant is for two months.

“As BAJ pre­dict­ed, the regime of dic­ta­tor Lukashenko is inten­si­fy­ing its repres­sion of jour­nal­ists,” said EFJ Pres­i­dent Mogens Blich­er Bjer­regård. “We call on all jour­nal­ists’ organ­i­sa­tions in Europe to mobilise with their gov­ern­ments to call for an end to these repeat­ed human rights vio­la­tions and for the imme­di­ate release of the 11 jour­nal­ists impris­oned in Belarus.”

The EFJ demands the imme­di­ate release of the eleven jour­nal­ists detained in Belarus just for doing their job:

• Eka­te­ri­na Andree­va

• Daria Chultso­va

• Eka­te­ri­na Bori­se­vich

• Julia Slut­skaya

• Alla Sharko

• Sergey Alshevsky

• Peter Slut­sky

• Kse­nia Lut­ski­na

• Andrey Alexan­drov

• Dzia­n­is Ivashyn

• Sergey Gordievich (under house arrest)