Lawyer denied meeting with Alyaksandr Barazenka

Journalist Alyaksandr Barazenka, who was arrested for taking video of an action of solidarity with political prisoners, continues hungry strike in a detention centre.

Alyaksandr Barazenka has been in the Minsk detention centre in Akresstsin Street since Monday, January 8. The journalist was sentenced to 11 days of administrative arrest for filming one-man picket of European Belarus activist Mikita Kavalenka in front of the KGB headquarters. Alyaksandr Barazenka said after the trial he would go on hunger strike in protest, Radio Svaboda reports.

On January 11, a lawyer tried to get access to Barazenka in the morning to prepare a cassation appeal and learn about inmate’s health, but he was not allowed. “The staff of the detention centre said they did not have vacant rooms for meetings,” the lawyer explained.

Colleagues of Alyaksandr Barazenka think he continues hunger strike and try to help him.

“He went on hunger strike, and we, journalists and his co-workers, formed something like a queue to pass him parcels every day. He needs juices. We know Barazenka and think he will not drop his idea, though we will try to persuade him to stop hunger strike through the lawyer,” journalist Ales Piletski says.

Photo correspondent Yulia Darashkevich prepared a parcel for Alyaksandr Barazenka today. She says the parcel was accepted.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the arrest of Alyaksandr Barazenka and called on the Belarusian authorities to release him immediately.

Andrei Bastunets, the deputy head of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), says there were 100 cases of detention of journalists at protest actions last year:

“We are constantly telling the authorities a journalist performs his professional duties during mass events and has the right to do this. Detention of a journalist is violation of his freedom of expression. We are watching the situation and support Ales.”

Besides Alyaksandr Barazenka, activist of European Belarus civil campaign Mikita Kavalenka, who raised portraits of political prisoners opposite the KGB headquarters, was detained for 15 days. According to human rights activist Maria Kasyan, Mikita’s lawyer is preparing an appeal to the Minsk City Court:

“The lawyer will refer to numerous procedural violations. There are violations in police report and proceedings. We turned attention to these facts at the trial, but the judge did not react. The lawyer will demand to overturn the court verdict.”