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According to reports, the arrests were related to the shooting that led to the deaths of opposition supporters and security officials.
Belarus’s most famous human rights organization said on Friday that about 100 people were detained after the shooting that killed an opposition supporter and a security official.
The Viasna Human Rights Center stated that the arrests took place in the capital Minsk and seven other cities, which seemed to be related to comments on the incident on social media.
It said that those arrested face charges of insulting government officials and inciting “social hatred” and are punishable by up to 12 years in prison.
The Belarusian authorities reported the incident on Tuesday night, saying that “a particularly dangerous criminal” opened fire on security guards after they appeared in his apartment looking for “persons involved in terrorist activities.”
Authorities said that an official of the Belarusian National Security Agency (KGB) was killed and the perpetrator was shot back to death.
EPAM Systems, a large American IT company founded by Belarusians, said the deceased was its employee Andrei Zeltser. EPAM launched a program last year to train Belarusian IT workers who were unemployed because of their support for mass protests against the long-term president Alexander Lukashenko After the election opponents called it a scam in August 2020.
On Friday, Lukashenko observed a minute of silence during a meeting with the President’s government officials to commemorate the dead KGB official and said that he “will not forgive this person’s death”.
Earlier this week, Belarusian Deputy Minister of the Interior Nikolai Karpyankov called for mass detention of people who comment on social media in a televised speech, condemning them as “absolute freaks.”
Pavel Ratushko, a senior Belarusian opposition activist, told the Associated Press that “under the leadership of Lukashenko, it is impossible to conduct a fair investigation of (the incident)”.
“Not only Andrei Zelze-a calm, kind and compassionate man-was declared a terrorist. All those who disagreed with the regime were declared terrorists,” Ratushko in Warsaw Tell the Associated Press that he is currently in exile there.
On Wednesday, the Belarusian Ministry of Information blocked access to the website of the Belarusian Communist Youth League Pravda, a Belarusian subsidiary of a popular Russian newspaper of the same name.
The Ministry did not provide any reason for its decision to block the website. The website is visited by approximately 20,000 users every day. However, access was restricted a few hours after the website published a report on the shooting incident. The report published comments from friends of civilians who were killed. , He described him in a positive manner.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russian authorities “categorically disagree” to this restriction.
“We think it violates the principle of media freedom. We hope that the Belarusian side will provide conditions for our media work,” Peskov said.
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