Business monthly’s director over seven months behind bars without charges

January 3, BPN. Law enforcers have not yet charged Kanstancin Załatych, director of the newspaper Belorusy i Rynok held in custody for over seven months, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) said citing his wife Natalla Załatych.

Her husband is holding up well, she said citing his lawyer, and added that he might go on trial in January or in February. “I hope that at least at the beginning of the year they will be able to say what they want from him,” the she said.

The Committee for State Security (KGB) arrested Załatych in May 2022 along with editor in chief Andrej Aleksandrovič and accountant Julija Kachno.

Authorities freed Aleksandrovič and Kachno later that day, while Załatych was placed in pre-trial detention. Human rights groups declared him a political prisoner.

On July 23, the Ministry of Information blocked access to the newspaper’s website because of the alleged links to content blacklisted as extremist and unblocked it only in late December.

On December 6, Belorusy i Rynok managers said the monthly suspended publication until at least the second half of 2023.

Belorusy i Rynok was founded in December 1990 as the Belorusskiy Rynok weekly. It was renamed in September 2005, after Alaksandr Łukašenka had prohibited private entities from using the words “national” and “Belarusian” (Belorusskiy). It was published once a month in the last two years.