Mahiliou journalist Barys Vyrvich searched and questioned but eventually released

Accord­ing to human rights activists, author­i­ties searched Vyrvich’s home in the Bia­lyn­ichy Dis­trict, con­fis­cat­ing all elec­tron­ic equip­ment and mobile phones.

Vias­na sug­gests that the search may relate to the State Secu­ri­ty Committee’s deci­sion to declare 6TV.by an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion” on 4 Decem­ber 2023.

The Mahil­iou jour­nal­ists, Dzmit­ry Salauiou, Uladz­imir Lapt­se­vich, and Ali­ak­san­dr Burak­ou Sr, were iden­ti­fied by the KGB as a group of cit­i­zens account­able for car­ry­ing out “extrem­ist activ­i­ties” on cer­tain media plat­forms.

Under cur­rent Belaru­sian law, indi­vid­u­als iden­ti­fied as mem­bers of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion may face crim­i­nal charges for cre­at­ing or par­tic­i­pat­ing in such a for­ma­tion or facil­i­tat­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ty. These offens­es car­ry penal­ties of up to 10 years impris­on­ment.

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