Journalist accused of facilitating extremist activities

September 16, BPN. Homiel-based freelance journalist Jaŭhien Mierkis has been charged with facilitating extremist activities, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.

Police arrested him on September 13 and searched his apartment.

On the same day, police searched the home of his father, a well-known cardiologist Alaksandr Mierkis, but did not take anything. A laptop and a smartphone were confiscated during a raid on the apartment of the journalist’s girlfriend, Sviatłana Kaścenka, on September 14.

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.

Belarus has at least 28 media workers behind bars, said the Belarusian Association of Journalists.