Mahilou journalists stand accused in cooperating with foreign media

KGB suspects Mahilou independent journalists Aliaksandr Burakou and Mikhail Arshinski in “cooperating with foreign media without an accreditation”.

According to what Burakou told BelaPAN, he had been summoned to a police station in Budaunikou Street 7 over the phone. There a police major Ruslan Marozau took his explanations as to a video piece, shown in autumn 2013 on Belsat TV channel. In the documents a cameraman Mikhail Arshinski was also mentioned as a person, against whom administrative charges were brought.

“The video told of the terrible living conditions in the building number 4 in Budaunikou Street – there is no toilet in the barrack, the floors are rotten, the ceiling could fall at any moment. After the video aired, the Mahilou region KGB department held an inspection and took operative search measures – the identities were established. People, shown in the video, were demonstrated photos, in which they were supposed to recognize me and Mikhail Arshinski. I simply got surprised that KGB would deal with such trifles”, - Burakou stated, having mentioned that, under the article charges were brought under, the responsibility could be no more than a fine.

The journalist said that he had not been going to Poland for many years and worked as a freelancer with his own web-site and cooperated with various media. According to him, Marozau had papers with articles, downloaded from the Internet, while in the documents on the inspection, that the security service had undertaken, the name was painted over of the KGB officer who carried it out.

“It is quite interesting to observe it all, but an inspection was carried out, administrative charges pressed, KGB passed the inspection materials to the police, and the police is supposed to somehow react. So far the police summons us and takes explanations”, - the independent journalist said.

“It is curious that the inspection was held in October-November 2013. An administrative case is supposed to be considered within a two-month term, after which the limitation period expires. I do not know what the prospects could be”, - Burakou noted.

So far he does not relate KGB claims to him with anything apart from, probably, participating in a Mahilou human rights group, which deals with the issues of punitive psychiatry. “In any case, I do not consider this some kind of strong pressure on me. And I am very surprised that KGB is dealing with this for budget money”, - Burakou said.