Investigative reporter Ivašyn spends 15 days in punishment cell

Jour­nal­ist Dzia­n­is Ivašyn has been released from a pun­ish­ment cell at Prison No 8 in Žodz­i­na, Min­sk region, after spend­ing 15 days there, said a Telegram chan­nel, mon­i­tor­ing his per­se­cu­tion.

Pho­to: Telegram chan­nel focus­ing on Ivašyn’s per­se­cu­tion

Ivašyn report­ed­ly did not com­plain of health issues. Prison author­i­ties reg­u­lar­ly place him in pun­ish­ment cells, accord­ing to the Vias­na Human Rights Cen­ter.

In Sep­tem­ber 2022, the jour­nal­ist was giv­en 13 years and one month in prison on charges of high trea­son and ille­gal han­dling of per­son­al data. Rights groups con­sid­er him a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.

Ivašyn was a vol­un­teer edi­tor with Ukraine’s Infrom­Na­palm and also con­tributed arti­cles to Belarus’ inde­pen­dent week­ly Novy Čas.

He inves­ti­gat­ed Russ­ian med­dling in Belarus, con­struc­tion at a Sovi­et-era mas­sacre site, and the con­tro­ver­sial recruit­ment of for­mer Ukrain­ian riot police offi­cers by Belarus.

Fol­low­ing the journalist’s arrest in March 2021, the Com­mit­tee for State Secu­ri­ty accused him of spy­ing for Ukraine and caus­ing dam­age to Belarus’ nation­al secu­ri­ty.

At least 39 media work­ers are held behind bars in Belarus, accord­ing to the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists.