Two employees of the Financial Investigations Department conducted a search in the office of the Belarusian media outlet Ezhednevnik (ej.by), Barys Haretski, Spokesman for the Belarusian Association of Journalists, said on Thursday.
A day earlier, Syarhei Satsuk, editor-in-chief of ej.by, was detained by people who introduced themselves as officers of the State Control Committee. Later, the journalist was interrogated and arrested for three days. According to the officials, he is a suspect in a criminal case.
The BAJ representatives arrived at the scene, but they were not let into the office. Only Alyaksandr Satsuk, the detainee’s brother, was allowed to be present during the search.
“As far as we know, they were making an inventory of the property and were seizing the documents,” Haretski told Belsat.
Several months ago, Satsuk wrote a letter and asked Euroradio to publish it in case of his being arrested. In the letter, he tells about the threats received and gives the alleged reasons for the authorities’ retaliation against him. Among others, he lists a comment made for Belsat TV journalistic investigation:
