Elena Tolkacheva

Affiliated media: TUT.BY, Journalist

Incident date: May 18, 2021

Attack type:

• Confiscation/seizure of property, vehicles, equipment, documents

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Minsk

Additional information:

On 18 May, employees of the Department of Financial Investigations searched the TUT.by editorial office, as well as the homes of the publication’s journalists and editors (including Tolkacheva). Police broke down the door and confiscated computer equipment from the apartment. Tolkacheva was taken away, and for some time, her relatives did not know her whereabouts. It later became known that the journalist had been held in the Okrestina temporary detention centre for 72 hours. On 21 May, Tolkacheva was transferred to a pre-trial detention centre in Zhodino on charges of tax evasion (Part 2 of Article 243 of the Criminal Code).