Belarusian News Site Goes Offline After Police Raids, Arrest Of Staff
udf.byBelaPAN chief editor and director Iryna Leushyna was one of the detained (file photo) Belarusian police have detained several employees of BelaPAN, a private news agency, as a crackdown on media and civil society in Belarus intensifies following last year's disputed presidential election that handed victory to authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Belapan’s websites, belapan.by and belapan.com, also can’t be reached from both Belarus and abroad after police in Minsk on August 18 searched the homes of staff and the news agency’s office.
Later in the day, BelaPAN’s director and chief editor Iryna Leushyna, accountant Katsyaryna Boyeva, and former director Dzmitry Navazhylau were detained and placed in prison.