Фота: pushlib.org.by.
Most of those detained in the case involving Belarusian book publishers and booksellers have been released. According to Nasha Niva, one defendant remains behind bars — translator and publisher Zmiter Kolas, who has been charged with leading an “extremist formation.”
Those released include founder of the Technalogiya publishing house Vatslau Bahdanovich, his daughter Viktoryia, and 75-year-old publishing veteran Dzmitry Sanko. The case against Andrei Kim, another cultural figure detained at the same time as the publishers, was limited to administrative arrest.
According to the publication, the released defendants remain under travel restrictions and other legal statuses. In February and March, searches were also carried out at the homes of several other Belarusian cultural figures, during which books were confiscated from their personal libraries.
Zmiter Kolas graduated from the translation faculty of the Minsk State Institute of Foreign Languages. A translator and founder of the publishing house bearing his name, he translated into Belarusian works by Camus, Sartre, Ionesco, Rabelais, Baudelaire and many other authors of world literature. His publishing house released more than 100 books in the “Poets of the Planet” series.
It should be recalled that in early March, the KGB designated as an “extremist formation” a coalition of publishing houses that included Kamunikat.org, Lohvinau Publishing House and the publishing house of Andrei Yanushkevich. Mass detentions of publishers and booksellers took place in Minsk in February.