Mopping-up operation sanctioned by prosecutor's office
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14:16, — Politics
Reasons for holding searches at apartments and offices of independent journalists have been reported. They are held under search warrant signed by a deputy prosecutor of Minsk Alyaksei Stuk.
It has been said by a public association the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which receives all information about the searches.
In particular, the search warrant was issued in a criminal case brought up on charges relating Article 367 of the Criminal Code (libelling of the president), mentioning names Marozau, Minich, Abozau.
One should note that this criminal case was opened back in August 2005 by the prosecutor's office of Minsk based on the fact of dissemination of cartoons on the web. The cartoons "damage honour and dignity of Belarus' president". The grounds were cartoons which represented short satire items about the Belarusian president. The Crimina Code envisages a restriction of freedom or imprisonment for up to 5 years for such a crime. In the framework of the criminal case the administrator of the web-site Andrei Abozau and a coordinator of the project Pavel Marozau were interrogated. KGB officers searched their apartments, seized 12 items of computer equipment with the held of which cartoons could be made. A. Abozau, P. Marozau and one more suspect, Aleh Minich didn't wait for arrests and left abroad to bordering countries.
As we have informed, searches started on March 27 in the morning. Apartments of journalists working for the Polish-based Radio Racyja, Polish TV channel Belsat, are searched, as well as apartments of independent journalists from Homel, Vitsebsk, Brest, Hrodna, Babrujsk and other cities.
According to reports, all searches are carries out by KGB officers, though the KGB center of information and public relations is unavailable for comment.
The spokesperson of Minsk city prosecutor's office Aleh Ahafonau refused to confirm or refute BelaPAN information that search warrants were signed by A. Stuk. He refers to secret of investigation.
