MINSK – The international human rights organization Reporters Without Borders has called on the Belarusian authorities to free three authors of a number of Russian news resources, i.e. Dzmitry Alimkin, Yury Paulavets, and Syarhey Shyptsenka, the Belarusian Association of Journalists reported with reference to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
“The posts of these three bloggers are controversial but that does not justify their imprisonment,” the association quoted Johann Bihr, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, as saying.
“According to international standards, their provisional detention is neither necessary nor proportionate. We ask the Belarusian authorities to release them and to ensure they get a fair trial, which will require an independent expert evaluation of the offending posts,” Bihr said.
It was reported earlier that the Belarusian Investigative Committee had opened criminal cases under Criminal Code Article 130 (fomenting racial, ethnic, or religious enmity or discord) against Alimkin, Paulavets, and Shiptsenka, who are authors of the Russian information resources Regnum, Lenta.ru, and EADaily.The criminal cases were opened based on reviews by the Belarusian national expert commission assessing information products for the possible presence of manifestations of extremism in them. The commission concluded that some reports by the said authors may have violated Criminal Code Article 130.
The investigation is of the view that their unlawful activities were motivated chiefly by financial interest, the Investigative Committee said.
The suspects have been detained and taken into custody before trial.
