War on experts: Sociologist Shelest restricted, scholars Matskevich and Vadalazhskaya in custody
On August 4, Belarusian security forces raided flats of a number of well-known Belarusian experts and consultants in Minsk.
The place of the reputed methodologist and philosopher Uladzimir Matskevich was searched; later, he was taken to the notorious detention centre on Akrestsin Street, his sister says.
The searches were also carried out in apartments of Ulad Vyalichka, the former head of the international consortium EuroBelarus, and analyst Tatsyana Vadalazhskaya, a coordinator of the Flying University. At first, Vyalichka was detained, but twelve hours later, he was released, his wife said on Facebook. Tatsyana Vadalazhskaya has been taken into custody for ten days under a criminal article, Telegram channel By_culture reports.
On August 4, Aksana Shelest, an analyst at the Centre for European Transformation, was also detained for a while.
“Aksana Shelest has not been in touch since the afternoon. She might have been detained as well. Oksana is a sociologist, she is a colleague of Uladzimir Matskevich and Tatsyana Vadalazhskaya,” political scientist Andrey Yahorau said on Wednesday.
Then he specified that Aksana Shelest was released on her own recognizance not to leave the country.
