Belarusian authorities detain another journalist

Shota was reportedly detained outside his house / Photo from s13.ru

Editor-in-chief of the Hrodna.life news portal Alexei Shota, 32, has been detained in the city of Grodno (Hrodna).

This was reported by the Belarusian Association of Journalists on Telegram on Sunday, May 30.

Shota was detained outside his house. Meanwhile, according to the portal, a minibus drove up to the detainee's house and he was escorted into it by unidentified persons.

Read alsoUkraine Ambassador to Belarus: Lukashenko personally ordered to nab Protasevich

Shota previously worked for the Belarusian opposition portal Tut.by. Some of the portal's employees were detained.

In March 2021, a court in Grodno considered a case against Hrodna.life's editor-in-chief, who was found guilty of distributing extremist materials and fined.

Arrest of NEXTA's ex-editor Roman Protasevich in Minsk

• On May 23, 2021, Roman Protasevich, 26, a co-founder and former editor of the NEXTA channel on the messaging app Telegram, was arrested along with his girlfriend after his Ryanair flight had been forcedly landed at Minsk airport.
• Shortly after, Belarus' KGB shared a video with the interrogation of the journalist. He appeared to have a small black spot on his forehead.
• Protasevich is reportedly facing the death penalty in Belarus.
• NEXTA is a Telegram channel that covers political events in Belarus, it helped mobilize recent protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
• In November 2020, Protasevich and another co-founder of NEXTA Stepan Putilo, 22, were put on the wanted list; before that, a case had been opened against them for organizing mass riots in Belarus.