Tatsiana Matveyeva

Affiliated media: Freelance Journalist

Incident date: July 28, 2022

Attack type:

• Criminal/administrative prosecution excluding (1), (2) and (3)

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Vitsebsk

Additional information:

Law enforcement officers detained journalist Tatsiana Matveyeva in the evening at the train station when she was returning from a business trip and took her home to conduct a search. As a result, two smartphones, a computer, digital media, books and postcards were confiscated from the journalist and she was taken to the temporary detention center, where she was held for 72 hours (the time period allowed by Belarusian law for detention to clarify circumstances). Matveeva was released on August 31 with a court summons under Article 24.23 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus — she was accused of holding an unauthorized picket. Conditions in the detention center were comparable to torture: no bedding was given, she had to sleep on a metal frame, the cell had bright lights on 24 hours a day, and she was not allowed to sit during the day.