Andrei Karelin

Affiliated media: Freelance journalist

Incident date: November 15, 2021

Attack type:

• Non-fatal attack / beating / injury / torture

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Bobruisk

Additional information:

At 6 AM, police officers came to the freelance journalist’s home with a search in the criminal case of insulting a public official and seized his laptop and phone. Then they took him to the police department. The law enforcers were interested in the content of the journalist’s social networks accounts. As a result of the study of his devices, a photo with the logo of a publication recognized as extremist in Belarus was found in the Instagram archive. He was drawn up a report under Part 2 of Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (dissemination of extremist materials or possession with the purpose of spreading). He was held in an isolation cell for three days until the trial. On November 15, the Pervomaisky District Court arrested Karelin for 12 days. At the police, the journalist was held in a cell for about 10 hours. «It was very cold in there. I drank water from the tap when they took me to the bathroom. I spent more than a day without food», — said Karelin.