OREANDA-NEWS. Since the morning of Tuesday, February 16, searches have been carried out at the heads of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), journalists and human rights defenders throughout the country. As part of the investigation, the police officers came to the chairman of the BAJ Andrey Bastunets and the deputy chairman of this non-governmental public organization Oleg Ageev.

«Andrei Bastunets was taken away by the police officers of the Minsk City Executive Committee, as they introduced themselves», the association's Telegram-channel said. His home was not searched, but it will be conducted in the BAJ office. According to his wife, the police officers behaved correctly. They did not answer the question about the reasons for the search. The BAJ also reported, that in the morning, unknown people began to break down the door to the deputy chairman of the BAJ, Boris Goretsky.

According to the human rights center «Viasna», the special police force officers arrived to the home of a freelance journalist from Gomel, Larisa Shchiryakova. According to preliminary data, the investigative actions are carried out in the framework of a criminal case under the article «Murder of an Employee of the Internal Affairs Bodies». A search is also being conducted at the home of Homel journalist Anatoly Gotovchits.