BelaPAN editor-in-chief Iryna Leushyna not given mattress, pillow in detention centre
On Tuesday, defence lawyers visited Iryna Leushyna, editor-in-chief of the independent news agency BelaPAN, accountant Katsyaryna Boyeva and former BelaPAN director Dzmitry Navazhylau in the detention centre, naviny.online reports.
According to them, the three detainees are in good spirits. Unfortunately, Leushyna and Boyeva received incomplete parcels from their relatives: they were given only hygiene products, and Leushyna got half a bottle of water. Moreover, the prison authorities failed to provide the editor-in-chief with a mattress and a pillow; there was another woman in the cell together with her. Navazhylau has three cellmates, the lawyers said.
On August 28, the ten-day term since the detention of BelaPAN employees will have expired. Under the Belarusian law, then they must either be released or transferred to a pre-trial detention facility.
Iryna Leushyna, Dzmitry Navazhylau, and Katsyaryna Boyeva were detained under criminal proceedings for ‘organisation or preparation of actions that grossly violate public order’ on August 18 on the back of the raids on the editorial office and flats of BelaPAN journalists.
The Belarusian human rights community recognised them as political prisoners.
BelaPAN is the first independent Belarusian news agency, founded in 1991. The agency sells news to other publications and institutions and runs the online newspaper Naviny.by.
