Threats against Iryna Khalip caused protests of human rights activists

The Committee to Protest Journalists and the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders “Front Line” have made a stand in support of the Belarusian journalist.

“We are outraged by the death threats against Iryna Khalip,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. “The suspicion that these threats may have come from within security services is deeply disturbing. The government must get to the bottom of the threats and must not shy away from taking all necessary steps to ensure that those behind them have to account for their actions in a court of law.”

The organisation notes that Iryna Khalip received threatening e-mail, phone calls, and a telegram from anonymous senders who warned her not to publish the investigative report she wrote and submitted to “Novaya Gazeta” on November 22. “Unless you remove your article you will go to meet Anna Politkovskaya,” referring to the Novaya Gazeta reporter who was gunned down in 2006, and a telegram suggested Khalip should “think about her son when reporting.” An unidentified man told Khalip by phone that she should not leave her house if the article is published.

Details mentioned in the messages suggest the perpetrators had intercepted Khalip’s e-mails and bugged her cell phone, she told CPJ. Iryna Khalip said she believes the Belarusian security service, the KGB, is behind the threats because it is the only agency in the country capable of screening private correspondence.

In its turn, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders “Front Line” in its statement reminds that Iryna Khalip writes on civil and human rights abuses in Belarus, and is a well-known journalist who fights for the freedom of speech in Belarus. Because of her coverage of political and social events in the country, she has been persecuted, arrested numerous times, subjected to interrogations and been beaten by police. In 2009 Iryna Khalip won an International Women's Media Foundation 'Courage in Journalism' Award. She was nominated in 2005 by Time Magazine as a “Hero of Europe” as part of a “Brave Heart” nomination.

Front Line believes that the threats against Iryna Khalip are directly related to her legitimate and peaceful work as a journalist in the defence of human rights, particularly freedom of speech. Front Line is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Iryna Khalip and urges the Belarusian authorities to:

1. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the threats Iryna Khalip has received, with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards;

2. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the security and physical and psychological integrity of Iryna Khalip and members of her family;

3. Ensure freedom of expression and association for all human rights defenders and journalists in Belarus.

We remind that Iryna Khalip started to receive threats ahead of publication by Russian “Novaya gazeta” of her article about the arrest of the US lawyer Emmanuel Zeltser and the struggle of the Belarusian KGB and Russian magnate Boris Berezovsky for disputed inheritance of a Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili.

In March 2008 the Belarusian KGB arrested on documents’ forgery charges a U.S. lawyer, Emmanuel Zeltser, and his aide, Vladlena Funk, who participated in the handling of Patarkatsishvili’s assets. Zeltser was sentenced to three years in prison and spent half the term in a Belarusian jail until his release in June.

In their statements of protest the Committee to Protest Journalists and the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders “Front Line” underline that in Khalip’s article, she said Zeltser had told her that the KGB tortured him to extract Patarkatsishvili’s original will and wanted him to lure Joseph Kay, a relative of Patarkatsishvili, to Minsk. Zeltser alleged that the KGB was working on behalf of another contender for the tycoon’s assets, the Russian oligarch in exile in London, Boris Berezovsky.