Belorusy i Rynok editor in chief released after questioning

May 19, BPN. Andrej Alieksandrovič, editor in chief of the independent newspaper Belorusy i Rynok, and Julija Kachno, the newspaper’s accountant, were released after questioning by the Committee for State Security (KGB) agents on May 18.

In the morning of May 18, the KGB arrested Kanstancin Zalatych, editorial director of Belorusy i Rynok, and Kachno, while Alieksandrovič stopped responding to phone calls.

Zalatych is suspected of inciting hatred. Police have seized his laptop and cell phones.

Founded in 1990, Belorusy i Rynok is one of the oldest privately owned newspapers in Belarus, covering economic and political news and published once a month. It is the last independent print media left in the country that covers social and political issues.

Zalatych was arrested on the first anniversary of a government crackdown on tut.by, Belarus’ largest independent media organization, and nine months after the arrest of Iryna Leŭšyna, BelaPAN‘s
editor in chief and director, and Dźmitryj Navažylaŭ, its former director, on
August 18, 2021.