Police terrorizes independent journalists in Brest

Maxim Khlyabets, a journalist, was interrogated by police on Friday as a witness in an administrative case.

However during the interrogation not details of the case were found out, but his professional activities, the press-service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists informs.

The journalist was served a writ with a demand to come to the police department in connection with the protest rally against capital punishment, which had been held in Brest. However after the interrogation started, as Maxim Khlyabets informs, policemen started to persuade him to collaborate and threatened him with responsibility.

“Maxim Melnik and the other policeman who had not said his name said that they knew everything about my journalistic activities and find them illegal. Policemen showed pictures which to their mind confirmed my cooperation with Radio Racyja, registered in Bialystok.

In the end of the log conversation policemen offered me cooperation with them, and to share necessary information. I certainly refused and said that I would inform mass media about what had been happening during the interrogation,” Maxim Khlyabets said.

It is not the first case of pressure on independent journalists in Brest recently. On March 31 the prosecutor’s office in Brest issued a warning about illegal actions that should not be performed by the member of the BAJ Yauhen Skrabets. On March 21 he was already interrogated by the city prosecutor’s office. The journalist was questioned about whether he contributed to foreign mass media without accreditation and whether he discredits Belarus in his articles.