Ihar Karnei, one of the most prominent independent journalists remaining in Belarus, was arrested on Monday in Minsk, the country’s capital. Karnei’s daughter Polina told ad Associated Press that the police would raid his home and take him away, also confiscating his computers and phones. The Belarusian authorities have not given reasons for his arrest. However, Karnei worked for the magazine for some time Radio Free Europe founded and financed by the United States government, which in Belarus is considered an “extremist” organization: and in the country, those who work for organizations of this kind can be sentenced to up to 7 years in prison.
Karnei is 55 years old and is only the latest in a series of journalists imprisoned in Belarus for political reasons. Since 2020, President Alexander Lukashenko, who has continuously governed the country in an authoritarian manner since 1994, has greatly strengthened the repression against independent journalists and political opponents, after the large anti-government protests that had followed his election and which called for his resignation. According to opponents and international organizations, the elections won by Lukashenko in 2020 had been conditioned by fraud; Lukashenko’s inauguration was then not recognized by the European Union. Since then, thousands of people have been arrested and many political opponents have fled abroad.