Former Babrujski Kurier editor Anatol Sanatsenka sentenced to 15 days in detention

Author­i­ties in Belarus have detained Ana­tol Sanat­sen­ka, for­mer edi­tor-in-chief of the inde­pen­dent region­al news­pa­per Babru­js­ki Kuri­er. Sanat­sen­ka was arrest­ed on March 28 in Babru­jsk, where secu­ri­ty forces also searched his res­i­dence.

Ana­tol Sanat­sen­ka, for­mer edi­tor-in-chief of the inde­pen­dent region­al news­pa­per Babru­js­ki Kuri­er

On March 31, he faced an admin­is­tra­tive tri­al at the Babru­jsk Dis­trict and City Court, report­ed­ly on charges relat­ed to the dis­tri­b­u­tion and pro­duc­tion of extrem­ist con­tent. The court sen­tenced him to 15 days of admin­is­tra­tive deten­tion.

The same day, law enforce­ment car­ried out a search at the home of Sanatsenka’s nephew, Vital Sanat­sen­ka, who had pre­vi­ous­ly owned Babru­js­ki Kuri­er as an indi­vid­ual entre­pre­neur.

This is not the first time Ana­tol Sanat­sen­ka has faced legal trou­ble. In Sep­tem­ber 2022, he was detained and con­vict­ed twice under sim­i­lar charges, spend­ing 30 days behind bars.

That same month, the Belaru­sian Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion blocked access to the Babru­js­ki Kuri­er web­site, babruysk.by. On Sep­tem­ber 26, the Babru­jsk Dis­trict and City Court clas­si­fied the site’s mate­ri­als as extrem­ist, effec­tive­ly shut­ting down the pub­li­ca­tion.