Journalist arrested for weakening state security

September 14, BPN. Homiel-based freelance journalist Jaŭhien Mierkis has been arrested as part of a criminal case, the Viasna Human Rights Center reports.

On September 13, his apartment was searched. The warrant cited a Criminal Code article against calls for sanctions or other actions undermining national security.

His father, Homiel’s well-known cardiologist Alaksandr Mierkis, was searched on the same day, but nothing was seized from him.

On September 14, a laptop and mobile phone were seized from Jaŭhien Mierkis’s friend Śviatłana Kaścienka.

The reporter cooperated with a number of independent media outlets, including Belsat TV. After the channel was labeled as an “extremist group,” Mierkis, a historian by training, has paused journalism and focused on local history projects.

He spent 27 days in a detention facility in September 2020 over unauthorized rallies, and was also briefly detained in December 2021.

According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, 28 media workers remain behind bars.