MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2021) Belarusian law enforcement officers are conducting a search at the premises of the private news agency, BelaPAN, as part of a case against media manager Andrei Alexandrov, agency journalist Tatiana Bublikova said Thursday.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) on Wednesday said that Alexandrov, who used to serve as the BAJ's deputy chairman and BelaPAN's deputy director, had been arrested. The spokesperson for the Minsk investigate committee, Yekaterina Garlinskaya, told Sputnik that Alexandrov is a suspect in a public order violation case.
"At 12:10 [09:10 GMT], they started searching the news agency BelaPAN. People in uniform came to our office," Bublikova said in a video posted on her Facebook page.
Later in the day, Garlinskaya confirmed the search.
"I can confirm that as part of the criminal case on mass unrest in Minsk, the agency of inquiry is searching the BelaPAN office, per the order of the investigative committee's [Minsk] office," the spokesperson said.
Belarus entered a prolonged political crisis after the August 9 presidential election, won by incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko. The opposition has not recognized the results, claiming that Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was the real winner.
