Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – Belarusian authorities on Tuesday attacked the homes and offices of journalists and human rights activists in a latest move to quell protests against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Police searched the offices of the Belarusian Journalists’ Association and the Viasna Center for Human Rights, as well as the apartments of its members, confiscating their equipment. More than 30 people were detained for a short time and at least three remained in police custody, according to activists.
The main European human rights envoy denounced the searches and detentions in Belarus as unacceptable.
“Freedoms of expression, association and assembly should be ensured in accordance with international human rights standards,” Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic said on Twitter.
The leader of the Association of Journalists of Belarus, Andrei Bastunets, was one of those detained and later released.
“This is the biggest repression that journalists and rights activists have ever seen in Europe,” said Boris Goretsky, the association’s vice-president, whose home was also searched. “There have been more than 400 detentions of journalists in the last six months, and the authorities will not stop there.”
At least 10 of them faced criminal charges and remained in custody.
Authorities also raided the Viasna human rights center in Minsk and searched the apartments of several of its activists, including the head of the group, Ales Bialiatski.
“This is an attempt to intimidate journalists and human rights activists who have told the world about the incredible scale of the crackdown,” Viasna deputy chief Valiantsin Stefanovic said.
At least three Visna activists remained in police custody after being detained on Tuesday.
Belarus was shaken by protests, as the official results of the August 9 presidential election gave Lukashenko a sixth term in a landslide. The main opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and her supporters rejected the result as rigged, and some poll workers also described the manipulation of the vote.
Authorities responded to the protests, the largest of which drew up to 200,000 people, with widespread repression. According to human rights activists, more than 30,000 people have been detained since the protests began and thousands have been brutally beaten.
The United States and the European Union have responded to elections and repression by imposing sanctions on Belarusian officials.
The Committee of Inquiry, the nation’s top state investigating agency, said Tuesday’s searches were part of an investigation into the funding of the protests.
Tsikhanouskaya denounced the raids and detentions of journalists and rights activists, saying that “the regime is triggering repression against those who support human rights.”
Amnesty International has denounced the raids as a further escalation of reprisals against dissent.
“This is clearly a centralized and targeted attempt to decimate the country’s independent media and human rights organizations through terrifying home raids, harassment and persecution,” said Aisha Jung, the group’s main campaign in Belarus. -a statement. “The authorities are determined to prevent and discourage others from carrying out their critical and legitimate human rights and journalistic work.”
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have called on the Belarussian authorities to end the persecution of journalists.
“We strongly condemn this outrageous act of violence and repression and call on Lukashenko’s government to stop harassment against our colleagues,” IFJ President Younes Mjahed said in a statement.