Siarhei Arzhantsau

Affiliated media: VKontakte group Klimavitskaya Staronka, Freelance journalist, Blogger

Incident date: March 19, 2021

Attack type:

• Warnings, pre-trial complaints, questioning and other extra-judicial actions

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Klimavichy

Additional information:

Siarhei Arzhantsau was detained near his home by police officers. His apartment was searched as part of a criminal case against a local Telegram channel, and the place was ransacked, but nothing was seized. The journalist’s smartphone was taken away and examined, and he was also forced to turn on his computer and show the information stored in it. After that, Arzhantsau was warned in writing about criminal liability for extremist activity. According to Siarhei, after the search, he was forced to close the group Klimavitskaya Staronka with 1.7 thousand subscribers in the social network VKontakte. Law enforcement officers gained access to this page, photo albums and records started to disappear from there, the list of subscribers was deleted, etc.