Police Detains Pavel Mazheyka

At 12.30 on 27 October the police detained the head of Hrodna branch of Belarusian Association of Journalists, journalist of the closed “Pahonia” newspaper Pavel Mazheyka. He managed to phone the journalist Iryna Charniawka after the detention. According to Mazheyka, he was detained by the senior police inspector Piatro Lenets. Now he is probably kept at Hrodna Borough Board of Internal Affairs, though the duty policeman denies it.

Most probably, the detention is connected to the picket, held by journalists of Hrodna on 4 October, when five journalists protested against the increase of the pressurization of independent press. The reason for the picket was the sentence to the chief editor of the “Birzha Informacii” newspaper Alena Rawbetskaya, who was charged with distribution of information that was considered insulting to A. Lukashenka. The journalists held sheets of paper with the words “Journalists are tried in Hrodna!!!”.

On 22 October P. Lenets invited Mazheyka to the police for “explanatory talk” concerning the action. However, the journalists said he would react only to official summons.