Prosecutor’s Office Refuses to Return Confiscated Journalistic Equipment
Deputy Prosecutor of Homiel Region Brouka believes there are no grounds to return professional equipment that was confiscated from Maryna Koktysh, Deputy Editor of Narodnaya Volia independent newspaper. Lawyers of BAJ say the journalist can apply to court against such actions of the Prosecutor’s Office.
17 June 2010 Maryna Koktysh received an official reply to her request of possible returning of the equipment.
"There are no grounds to meet your request at the moment," the letter from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Homiel Region goes. "The information carriers confiscated from you are considered to be material evidence and they are related to a criminal case. Circumstances that are significant for the case are being found out with the help of the evidence."
In general, according to Deputy Regional Prosecutor, "a body of preliminary investigation is not entitled to provide you with information about the investigation as you have a status of a witness."
According to Andrei Bastunets, a Vice Chairman of Belarusian Association of Journalists, the Prosecutor’s Office misuses its authority.
"When they search private apartments, confiscate personal belongings or interrogate people, they forget that those persons are witnesses, not suspects. And suddenly they started "remembering" about a status of a witness," Andrei Bastunets comments. "So, people are interrogated and their belongings are confiscated, but they even don’t know what the consequences can be and what is happening to their equipment. I think that journalists have real grounds to apply to court and to complain about obvious violations of their rights. BAJ is ready to provide our colleagues with necessary assistance."
Two computers and a memory stick were confiscated from Maryna Koktysh in February 2010 during a series of searches the police conducted in private apartments of independent journalists and editorial offices. The searches were followed by interrogations of four well-known Belarusian journalists, BAJ members Maryna Koktysh, Sviatlana Kalinkina, Iryna Khalip and Natallia Radzina, and confiscation of their equipment.
In April and May 2010 investigators conducted an expertise of the confiscated equipment. After that they returned to Sviatlana Kalinkina her laptop and her son’s computer, but two more her computers are still confiscated as well as all the equipment of the other three journalists. All the equipment confiscated is regarded as material evidence on the criminal case on slander against ex-Head of Homiel Regional Department of KGB (State Security Committee) Ivan Korzh.
Background of the case
The investigative actions in relation to the four Belarusian journalists are connected to the so-called "Huniting Case." It deals with four high-ranked police officers who allegedly organized illegal hunting and tried to put illegal pressure on officers of the KGB (State Security Committee). Three of them were found guilty. Earlier, one of the KGB officers appealed against relatives of the accused for slander. That appeal gave the grounds for searches of the three journalists" apartments and offices.
17 February the police conducted a search in the editorial office of Narodnaya Volia newspaper and confiscated a computer of Deputy Editor Maryna Koktysh.
26 February Representatives of law enforcement agencies searched a private apartmentof Sviatlana Kalinkina, the Chief Editor of Narodnaya Volia.
3 March Iryna Khalip, a well-known Belarusian journalist and a member of BAJ, and her husband Andrei Sannikau, a leader of European Belarus Civil Campaign, were also interrogated by the police on the same case.
During the day of 16 March 2010 the police conducted a series of searches in working premises and private apartments of several Belarusian journalists and civil activists in Minsk. Their equipment was confiscated, and Natallia Radzina stated excessive force was used against her.
22 March the Board of the Belarusian Association of Journalists adopted a special statement about the case. BAJ considers the police searches and interrogations of the colleagues as a part of a special operation, directed against independent journalism in Belarus.
28 April the journalists were interrogated by the police once again 28 April. They were informed their computers that had been confiscated during searches in March 2010 would be further examined. Besides, some of them learnt the police had found some files "related to the criminal case" on their hard drives.
