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On Friday, 29 January, TUT.BY journalist Nadezhda Kalinina was detained. The reason for her detention remains unclear. She was reportedly taken to a notorious detention centre on Okrestin Street in Minsk. In the afternoon, Nadezhda Kalinina stopped answering her hone. She tried to visit the Belarusian People’s Congress which started at 4 pm in the Kamvol recreation centre. It was later revealed that the journalist is in the Leninsky district police department.

Police are searching the office of Hrodna.life and to the home of NewGrodno.by editor Ihar Remzik (Bublikau).

BAJ and Reporters without Borders, addressed the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression. The letter informs about numerous cases of criminal prosecution of journalists and media in Belarus since September 2020.

The probe into Katsyaryna Andreyeva’s case might have been completed, her husband, investigative journalist Ihar Ilyash, surmised after reading the latest letter from the wife. As Andreyeva’s defence lawyers had to sign gag orders, they have no right to inform anyone (even her relatives) about the course and details of the investigation. However, in the letter Ilyash received on Ianuary 9, the imprisoned journalist wrote that she was awaiting the transfer to Minsk. “As it follows from the context of the letter, she talks about transporting her to court. It is quite logical: Katsyaryna was put in Zhodzina [remand prison] for the time of the investigation. As she has grounds to count on being transferred to Minsk, it means that the investigation has been over and one might expecte that she will be tried soon,” Ihar Ilyash said. However, it has not been reported officially whether and when the transfer and the trial will take place. “I don’t even make any projections for the future. I am ready for anything. It is pretty hard to surprise me now,” Katsyaryna Andreyeva says in her letter.