In the middle: Alexander Lukashenko’s son, Nikolai Lukashenko
Photo: Alexey Nikolsky/AFP
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHK) was banned by the Belarusian Journalists Association (BAZS) on Friday, in support of a measure by the Ministry of Justice.
The news is so round that the Syndicate of Journalists writing about the revelation was also banned a month ago, so its staff could only report the developments in a message sent via an encrypted Telegram messaging service.
BAZS’ message is that the Supreme Court has ruled the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, ending the country’s last registered defense organization.
International advocacy organizations unsuccessfully called on the government to withdraw the lawsuit, which the ministry refused.
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee has been operating in the country since 1995. Among its founders were the Soviet and Belarusian writer Vasily Bykov, the Nobel Prize-winning writer Svyatlana Aljaxievich, the poet Rigor Paradolin and many other prominent representatives of social and cultural life in Belarus.
In Belarus, events have been raging since last summer: after the scandalous presidential elections, the Lukashenko government and the authorities under its pressure conducted successive searches of independent law enforcement agencies and journalists. Several organizations were also suspected of funding it from abroad and violating tax rules. Following an action by the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court finally dissolved the Belarusian Journalists Association in August. (MTI)
