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Police seize issue of private newspaper in Krychaw

Police in Krychaw, Mahilyow region, have seized a new issue of the local private newspaper Volny Horad (Free Town), BelaPAN reports.

Editor in Chief Syarhey Nyarowny links this to the publication of an article about a major Russian TV channel’s move to broadcast a documentary implicating Alyaksandr Lukashenka in the disappearances of his political opponents.

On July 4, Russia’s government-controlled NTV broadcast “Kryostny Batska” (The Godbatska), a film that tells about the mysterious death of opposition leader Henadz Karpenka and the disappearances of former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka, opposition politician Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasowski and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski, who are alleged to have been kidnapped and murdered by a government-run death squad.

The documentary, which was censored from the NTV version broadcast in Belarus but could be watched on the Internet, caused a stir among Belarusian government officials.

“A total of 297 copies of the issue were seized,” Mr. Nyarowny said in an interview with the Belarus Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “There were no wrongdoings on our part. As an unregistered periodical, we had the right to print 299 copies. Nonetheless, the policemen refused to give back the copies, saying that they would be sent to a prosecutor’s office for examination. This is nonsense from a legal point of view, as prosecutors don’t deal with such matters. We have lodged a complaint with the prosecutor’s office and urged the head of the district police department, Vadzim Kavalyow, to return the newspapers to us.”