Journalists targeted in raids on Friday, arrests reported

Search­es were con­duct­ed at the homes of jour­nal­ists coop­er­at­ing with Pol­ish-head­quar­tered Bel­sat TV, name­ly Jaŭhien Mierkis, Hlieb Labadzien­ka, Hali­na Abakunčyk, Ihar Iĺjaš, Paviel Maže­j­ka, Ali­ak­siej Kajrys, Ali­ak­san­dr Sajen­ka, Chrysci­na Čar­ni­aŭska­ja, Alieś Liaŭčuk, Milana Chary­ton­a­va, Vik­tar Jarašuk, Andrej Jakimuš, Liuboŭ Lunio­va, and Han­na Halio­ta. Ms. Halio­ta was report­ed­ly arrest­ed as a sus­pect in a mass dis­or­der case.

The homes of Valiancin Ždanko and Alieh Hruzdzilovič, jour­nal­ists with the Belaru­sian ser­vice of Radio Free Europe/Radio Lib­er­ty (RFE/RL), and Inesa Studzin­ska­ja, a for­mer RFE/RL jour­nal­ist, were also searched. Mr. Hruzdzilovič and Ms. Studzin­ska­ja were report­ed arrest­ed.

Masked plain­clothes­men raid­ed the Min­sk office of RFE/RL’s Belaru­sian ser­vice, break­ing down its door and tak­ing away com­put­ers.

Jour­nal­ist Mary­na Arcy­baša­va also had her home searched.

In addi­tion, NGO activists con­tin­ued to be tar­get­ed in raids on Fri­day. In par­tic­u­lar, search­es were con­duct­ed at the homes of Mary­na Dubi­na, direc­tor of an envi­ron­men­tal group called Ecodom, and of Hali­na Usci­na­va, a mem­ber of the board of Pravava­ja Ini­cy­jaty­va (Legal Ini­tia­tive), a human rights group.