Alyaksandr Kabanau

In late February, popular Belarusian blogger Syarhei Petrukhin who is now being held in prison Nr 4 in Mahiliou, cut his wrists in protest, local activist Uladzimir Shantsau said on Thursday.

In a letter published by the newspaper Brestskaya Gazeta, imprisoned blogger Alyaksandr Kabanau says that he and his companion in misfortune Syarhei Pyatrukhin will soon be transferred to a pre-trial detention centre in the Belarusian city of Brest.

A criminal case has been initiated against Syarhei Sparysh, spokesman for the party Narodnaya Hramada and an associate of imprisoned politician Mikalai Statkevich.

Awakening of popular blogs is associated with activation and politicisation of civil society, which is definitely undesirable for the authoritarian authorities.

As of June 29, 19 political prisoners were behind bars in Belarus.

The Belarusian authorities opened new criminal cases against bloggers criticising Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the current situation in the country, NEXTA Live Telegram channel reports.

On June 17, Brest district court arrested blogger Alyaksandr Kabanau, the press secretary of Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, for 15 days. He is accused of participating in an “unauthorized mass event”.

Syarhei Pyatrukhin, an author of YouTube channels People’s Reporter and Youtube Deputies, has been detained on Tuesday afternoon.

During Wednesday’s search of Syarhei Tsikhanouski’s summer house in Homiel district, an investigative group found $ 900,000, blogger Alyaksandr Kabanau, the coordinator of Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya’s initiative group for Brest region, told belsat.eu

Brest bloggers Aliaksandr Kabanau and Siarhey Piatrukhin are now in Brest’s central city hospital. Mr Kabanau got there on May 9th after calling himself an ambulance. Piatrukhin was hospitalized from the temporary detention facility.

Kabanau, Andrasyuk and Bekalyuk were tried in Brest before the weekend.