Official Warning to Journalist Iryna Khalip Issued by Belarusian Procuracy :: Charter'97 :: News

Deputy Prosecutor General of Belarus Nikalay Kupryjanau issued an official warning to deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper “BDG. Delovaya Gazeta”, special correspondent of the Russian newspaper “Novaya Gazeta” Iryna Khalip. She has been informed about it today in the department on monitoring of fulfilment of the constitutional rights of citizens of the Prosecutor’s office of Belarus. The famous journalist was warned for the article “Time to throw away the rake” about the prospects of revolution in Belarus, published in August this year in the Russian newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”.

As Iryna Khalip said to the Charter’97 press center, it is said in the warning that “the article “Time to throw away the rake” with the question “Will a revolution take place in Belarus?” in the “Novaya Gazeta” of August 1-3, 2005 has been studied in the exercise of supervisory powers. It has been established that it has evidence of calls for destabilization of public order and change of the constitutional system of Belarus by extrajudicial measures”.

The prosecutor of the department on monitoring of fulfilment of the constitutional rights of citizens of the Prosecutor’s office of Belarus, Svyataslau Harelik, warned Iryna Khalip, that “in case her appearance in mass media with the same calls would be repeated”, the actions of the journalist would be considered as a call for violent overthrow of state regime, and according to the Criminal Code of Belarus, the punishment for that is up to 5 years of imprisonment.

“I perfectly understand that in reality my article expresses not only my personal opinion on the future of Belarus, but expresses opinion of very many people. I have very many like-minded persons, and the authorities understand that it is not a personal opinion of Iryna Khalip. Now, when less than a year is left before another critical point, another farce called “presidential elections”, the state would gag not only journalists, but other dissenters. Journalists are to be warned in this way, students are to be expelled from universities, “Zubrs” are to be jailed. The authorities would find a certain weapon against every group of opposition. But they are to lose in any case,” Iryna Khalip told to the Charter’97 press center.

As we have informed, the journalist has been summoned to the Republican prosecutor’s office many times, and has been demanded explanations for her harsh articles in the “Novaya Gazeta”.