On October 8, Nadzeya Sablina, an employee of the state-run Minsk Pravda newspaper, reported the Supreme Court’s decision to liquidate the non-government organisation Tell The Truth.
It is the Belarusian Justice Ministry that filed a lawsuit seeking the liquidation of the NGO in September. The court ruling is not appeable; it has already come into force.
Before the hearing, Tell The Truth co-chair Andrey Dzmitryeu anticipated that ‘the dice was loaded from the start’, but he still hoped for the best. And after the verdict was announced, he promised to continue the activities of the organization:
The organisation was registered in 2017; it was preceded by a same-name campaign launched in 2010 by the Forward Movement group. Initially, Belarusian poet Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu, who ran for the 2010 presidential election, became the leader of Tell The Truth. Then he moved into the fifth place, gaining 1.78% of votes (in accordance with official data).
Tatsyana Karatkevich, another co-chair, was nominated as a Tell The Truth candidate in the 2015 presidential election. According to the pro-Lukashenka Central Election Commission, 4.4% voters supported Karatkevich. In 2020, Andrey Dzmitryeu, the new head of the organisation, also joined the presidential race, receiving 1.21% of the vote (official result).
In mid July, the office of Tell The Truth as well as the Minsk flat of Tatsyana Karatkevich were raided; suring the searches, the computer equipment was seized. on August 12, Belarusian security forces detained Andrey Dzmitryeu, but he was released on the same day.
