(RSF/IFEX) – On 17 October 2004, Russian television journalist Pavel Sheremet was attacked by two plainclothes men outside a Minsk government building and then detained by police for a “minor disturbance of the peace”. Sheremet is the author of a critical biography of President Alexander Lukashenko. RSF and the Belarus Association of Journalists (BAJ) have […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 17 October 2004, Russian television journalist Pavel Sheremet was attacked by two plainclothes men outside a Minsk government building and then detained by police for a “minor disturbance of the peace”. Sheremet is the author of a critical biography of President Alexander Lukashenko.
RSF and the Belarus Association of Journalists (BAJ) have voiced deep concern about Sheremet’s state of health, as he was hospitalised with suspected cerebral trauma after being initially placed in a temporary detention cell. Later that night, police tried to interrogate him in hospital. Sheremet is due to appear in court on 20 October.
RSF and BAJ called on Interior Minister Uladzimir Naumau and the Belarus state prosecutor to carry out an additional investigation into the case and to determine whether the Minsk district police acted lawfully by placing the injured journalist in a special detention jail instead of offering him assistance. “Pavel Sheremet was the victim of a provocation,” the organisations said.
Sheremet, who works for the Russian television station Pervy Kanal, has been charged with “disturbing the peace” under Article 156 of the Civil Code. His assailants were not charged. Interior Ministry spokesman Genadz Glebchyk said the two men asked Sheremet for a cigarette and Sheremet subsequently insulted and attacked them. Glebchyk also said it was the two men who alerted the police.
The Interior Ministry spokesman said he did not know the cause of the injuries for which Sheremet is being treated in Minsk hospital’s neurosurgical unit. Many witnesses said Sheremet was in good health prior to his arrest.
Svetlana Kalinkina, a journalist with the newspaper “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” (BDG) who witnessed the incident, said the police did not take statements from any of the journalists who were at the scene.
Sheremet was previously detained in Belarus. On 26 July 1997, he was arrested with Dmitri Zavadski, a cameraman for the Russian public television station ORT, as they were preparing a report on security gaps along the Belarusian border with Lithuania (see IFEX alerts of 23 April and 26 February 1998, 15 December, 10 October, 9 September, 6 August, 31 and 28 July 1997). Both journalists spent several months in prison. Sheremet headed ORT’s Minsk bureau at the time.
Zavadski disappeared on 7 July 2000 at Minsk airport. The investigation into his disappearance was closed earlier in 2004, although his fate was never established and allegations of senior official involvement in his disappearance were not properly investigated (see alerts of 6 August, 9 July and 15 April 2004, 7 July and 26 March 2003, and others).
