Wife Of Jailed RFE/RL Consultant In Belarus Reportedly Detained

The wife of jailed RFE/RL con­sul­tant Ihar Losik has been report­ed­ly detained for «facil­i­tat­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties,» a charge that appar­ent­ly aris­es from an inter­view she did with the Bel­sat tele­vi­sion chan­nel.

The BGM Telegram chan­nel, found­ed by Losik, cit­ed sev­er­al oth­er Telegram chan­nels close to the gov­ern­ment as report­ing on Octo­ber 17 that Darya Losik faces the charge over the inter­view with the Pol­ish-based Bel­sat chan­nel, which Belaru­sian author­i­ties shut down and labeled extrem­ist in July last year.

There was no imme­di­ate con­fir­ma­tion from Belaru­sian author­i­ties that Darya Losik had been detained.

RFE/RL Pres­i­dent Jamie Fly con­demned Darya Losik’s detain­ment and demand­ed her imme­di­ate release.

«Darya Losik is guilty of noth­ing more than advo­cat­ing for her wrong­ly impris­oned hus­band, Ihar Losik. She must be released imme­di­ate­ly to care for her daugh­ter, Pauli­na. The Losik fam­i­ly has endured enough,» he said, refer­ring to the Losiks’ 4‑year-old daugh­ter.

Ihar Losik was sen­tenced to 15 years in prison in Decem­ber 2021 on charges that remain unclear.

The hus­band of exiled Belaru­sian oppo­si­tion leader Svy­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya, Syarhey Tsikhanous­ki, as well as four oth­er blog­gers and oppo­si­tion activists, were sen­tenced to lengthy prison terms along with Losik at the time.

Losik and oth­er defen­dants have insist­ed that the case against them is polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed.