Attack on BelaPAN News Agency: Available Information

The agency's websites are inaccessible both in Belarus and abroad.

The BelaPAN news agency's websites do not open anymore. They are inaccessible either in Belarus or abroad, reports euroradio.by.

Its websites are belapan.by, belapan.com and naviny.media.

In the morning, law enforcement officers came to a number of employees of the information company to search them. The search was conducted under the criminal case on the organization of actions that grossly violate public order (Art. 342 of the Criminal Code), said BelaPAN deputy editor-in-chief Aliaksandr Zaytsev.

The search lasted for about an hour. Seven people were present: "two officers of the Department for Combating Economic Crimes, their supervisor (probably from another department), two riot policemen in full gear and two witnesses. They confiscated equipment (a cell phone, a computer hard drive, and an old tablet), as well as an editorial ID card and several business cards. Zaytsev was not detained. He must appear when summoned, he said. He also says that the Investigative Committee is in charge of the case.

In the morning, the police searched the house of BelaPAN editor-in-chief Iryna Levshyna. When the search was over, she was taken to the editorial office. The search is planned there as well. Then she will be taken for interrogation to the Investigative Committee in Minsk.

What is known about the attack on the BelaPAN news agency so far?

- Editor-in-chief Iryna Levshyna - search at home, taken to the office for a search, and then taken for interrogation to the Investigative Committee in Minsk;

- Deputy editor-in-chief Aliaksandr Zaytsev - search at home, equipment, editorial ID and several business cards seized, released;

- Journalist Iryna Turchyna - search at home, equipment seized, interrogated, released as a witness;

- Journalist Zakhar Shcherbakov - search at home, taken for interrogation;

- Ex-director Dmitry Novozhilov - interrogated, current whereabouts - the TDF on Okrestina;

- Accountant Katerina Boeva (Leshchinskaya) - search at home, a suspect, current whereabouts - the TDF on Okrestina.