USA Embassy: Lukashenka's Regime Is Endlessly Afraid of the Truth
6- 19.08.2021, 7:37
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U.S. diplomats commented on the searches at BelaPAN.
The U.S. Embassy commented on the searches of employees and the office of BelaPAN news company.
"The regime is endlessly afraid of the truth, so it is furiously attacking freedom of the press," reads the statement of the diplomatic mission on Twitter. "Almost all independent media in Belarus have been persecuted. Today it is BelaPAN's turn again. But the voices of freedom cannot be suppressed; justice will prevail".
In the morning of August 18 law enforcers searched the director and editor-in-chief Iryna Leushyna, her deputy Aliaksandr Zaitsau, journalists Zakhar Shcherbakou and Iryna Turchyna, as well as accountant Iryna Bayavaya.
Later it became known that the former director of BelaPAN Dzmitry Navazhylau, who had resigned from the company in January of this year, was searched.
Leushyna, Bayavaya and Navazhylau were detained and taken to the temporary detention facility at 1.
Shcherbakou and Turchyn were interrogated in the office of the Investigative Committee of Minsk and then released on their own recognizance. Zaitsau was not brought in for questioning, but he signed an undertaking to appear.
Before the interrogation Shcherbakou was taken to the International Commutation Center in 55 Zakharov Street (the building of "Beltelecom"), where the hosting site is located. In the presence of the journalist, the server hosting belapan.by was seized.
After the search at her home Leushyna was taken to the BelaPAN office, which also was searched. The editorial server was seized. This is the second editorial server seized from the company as a result of the search. The hard drive of the main server was confiscated on January 14, when the search was conducted in connection with the case against the former BelaPAN deputy director Andrei Aliaksandrau.
It should be noted that at present Dzmitry Navazhylau is not an official of BelaPAN. Navazhylau used to be the company's director, but resigned at his own request in January of this year.
