Kyiv, Ukraine: Authorities in Belarus raided the house and office of independent media outlets and civil society activists on Friday, spreading hard action against the opposition in the former Soviet country.
The Association of Belarusian Journalists and the Viasna Human Rights Center said the authorities were looking for apartments and offices at least 31 journalists and activists in the Minsk capital and seven other cities.
“Authorities use all weapons of oppression against journalists – intimidation, beatings, search and arrest,” Andrei Bastunets, Head of the Journalist Association, said the country’s main security agency, which was still under the Soviet era.
The name KGB, said those targeted were allegedly involved in “extremist activities.” Among those targeted Friday was 22 journalists who worked for Belsat TV channels, which were funded by Poland, and for US-funded broadcasers, RFE / RL.
The authorities destroyed the RFE / RL office door in Minsk.
RFE / RL journalist Aleh Hruzdzilovich was arrested after the search for his family home, his wife, Maryana, told the Associated Press in a telephone interview from Minsk.
“Nine people enter our apartment, seize all the equipment and take Aleh away with handcuffs,” he said.
Viasna said the authorities also raided Alena Anisim’s house, the head of Belarusian Language, and activists with the legal initiative of Nongemernental organizations.
Belarus Investigation Committee, the upper state investigation body, said the raid was part of an investigation of the alleged embezzlement of taxes and violations of financial regulations by NGOs and media outlets.
Raids just continued the sweeping explanation on independent media and non-governmental organizations in this country.
Earlier this week, law enforcement officers stormed the house of 10 Viasna workers, as well as the Human Rights Headquarters in Minsk and other cities.
They also searched for a number of other Belarusian NGOs and journalists.
The action occurred after President Alexander Lukashenko, the old Belarus authoritarian leader promised to “handle” the organization he accused in riots.
Belarus was rocked by protests for months after the election of Lukashenko August 2020 to the sixth term in the vote that the opposition and the West saw as a cheat.
Belarusian authorities responded to opposition demonstrations with great harsh acts, including police who beat thousands of demonstrators and arrested more than 35,000 people.
The leading opposition figures have been imprisoned or forced to leave the country, while independent media outlets have searched for their offices and their journalists arrested.
Overall, 32 Belarusian journalists are currently being detained, both serve their sentences or waiting for the trial, according to the Association of Belarusian journalists.
SviaTlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s main challenger in the election of August 2020, who was forced to leave Belarus with official pressure immediately after voting, tweeted Friday that “the regime destroyed every media who dared to say the truth about the situation in Belarus.” Also on Friday, 11 students and a teacher were sentenced to 2 and 2 years in prison on charges of staging and the last protest coordinator.
The US Ambassador to Belarus, Julie Fisher, condemned the verdict.
“How fragile is a regime that cannot comply with free expression and civil involvement by 11 students? These young people present profiles in courage,” he said on Twitter.
Fisher also said that Friday’s raids targeting journalists “show cowards and inability to overcome the conflicting lionization and fantasies that are woven every day in State TV.” RFE / RL strongly condemns the achievements of the Hruzdzilovich Bureau and Detention and former RFE / RL correspondent ina studzinskaya and demanding their direct liberation.
“The raid and arrest testifying with despicable despair of the Lukashenko regime to cling to all costs,” said President RFE / RL Jamie Fly in a statement.
“Criminalization of Lukashenko from Independent Journalism is a cynical effort to deploy absolute control of what Belarusians have seen and heard.
This intimidation tactic will not silence our journalism.” The head of the European Union’s foreign policy, Josep Borrell, condemned the crackdown in a statement issued on Thursday.
“The wave of this new repression is another proof that the Lukashenko regime is conducting a systematic and well-organized campaign with the main purpose to silence all the remaining dissident sounds and suppress the civil space in Belarus,” Borrell said.
“Severe violations of human rights and basic freedom come at prices.
EU is ready to consider strict steps further in line with the gradual approach.”