Journalist Iryna Khalip was summoned to the city prosecutor’s office of Minsk for today morning at 10 a.m.. Yesterday after 8 p.m. law-enforcing agencies’ officers tried to enter her apartment, who produced a warrant for forcible arrest. After the reporter refused to follow them, she got a summons for today. It is probable that she can be arrested today.
Most likely the “visit” is connected with the criminal action brought up against Iryna Khalip after her last year’s article “Afghan Greyhounds” published in the supplement “Dlia sluzhebnogo polzovaniya” (“Restricted”) to the newspaper “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta”. In the article Khalip told about the details of the criminal case of the former president of concern “Belgospischeprom” Viktar Kazeka and his son Andrei Kazeka, former head of sales department of “Kryshtal” association, who were accused of libeling prosecutor general Sheiman.
The second reason for summons could be Iryna Khalip’s articles in Russian the “Novaya Gazeta”. Last autumn Khalip was summoned to the Prosecutor General’s office and asked to provide written explanation on the two articles “Saddam can hide in Belarus” and “Belarusian Bluff-maker Plays the Innocent”. She was to supply explanation of the “tone” of these articles.
Iryna Khalip is deputy editor-in-chief of the “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta”, which publication was interrupted for three months by the authorities. The newspaper is on the verge of survival and under an immense pressure of the authorities.
Besides, Iryna often goes to Strasbourg for sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. She gave a harsh report on the freedom of speech situation in Belarus at on of the sessions.
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