Politician Mikalai Statkevich posted on his Telegram channel a photo of a ruling declaring his Facebook account “extremist materials.” The decision was issued by the Leninski District Court of Hrodna. The prosecutor’s application was reviewed by Judge Volha Shumanskaya.
According to the ruling, an inspection of Statkevich’s Facebook account identified posts containing links to online resources whose informational products had previously been declared “extremist materials.” The inspection also found reposts of “extremist materials” and subscriptions to “information resources of the Facebook social network” that have been recognized as “extremist materials.”
Statkevich himself noted that he had not used the account for almost six years.
“Zauvazhce, ya ne karystausya hetam akauntam amal 6 hadou. I use hetyya hady yon ekstremistskim ne byu. Ale toe, shto yon takim abavyazkova stanet paslya maego ‘umounaga’ vyzvalennya, ya ne sumnyavaysya. Ne stau navat rabits sproby adnavits yagho, bo paroli zgubilisya, a adnavits ikh praz vizualizacyyu bylo prablemna z-za maey dastatkova kardynalnay vizualnay zmeny. Tamу ne stau tratits chas na heta. Khacya mne niyakavata, shto tak i ne zdoleu pavitatsya, a cyaper uzho i razvitatsya z 5,6 tysyachami padpisanykh na moy akaunt. Daruyce, syabry!” he wrote.
According to him, he created the Facebook account in 2015 after his previous release, when he began actively using social networks.
It was reported earlier that in Belarus, extremism charges are used by the authorities to target opponents of Lukashenka and dissent in general.
