Hromadske calls to the authorities of Belarus to release Reutskyi and Vasyliev

The editorial office of Hromadske calls to the authorties of |Belarus to immidiately release the Ukrainian citizens detained on August 12 in Minsk - Kostiantyn Reutskyi and Yevhen Vasyliev, who were preparing materials for the media outlet from Minsk as freelancers.

This was in the statement released by Hromadske.

The media outlet mentions that for a month they tried to receive an official accreditation from the authorities of Belarus, but, unfortunately, to no avail - it was never granted. 

“For this reason we had to cover the events without accreditation. Our colleagues stayed in the country for less than a day and prepared one material that was published at our web-site on the same day”, the statement quotes. 

The editorial office assures that neither of the two arrested journalists neither prepared nor assisted any public disorders in Belarus or in any other country.

Kostiantyn prepared many journalist materials for Hromadske in the last years. All of them can be found here, as a confirmation that he is a journalist.

“We call to the authorities of Belarus to release and return to Ukraine our colleagues, and not obstruct the freedom of speech. We call to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine in Belarus, and the President to take all necessary measures to prevent turning them into new political prisoners, this time in Belarus”, the statement says.

As IMI reported before, on August 12 in Minsk, riot police detained two Ukrainian citizens, volunteers from charity organization "Vostok SOS" - Kostiantyn Reutskyi and Yevhen Vasyliev, after they filmed with their smart-phone a violent detention of an activist from Belarus.