The Names of the Attorneys Detained on March 20 Have Become Known

It came to the attention of human rights defenders that after yesterday's raid on attorneys at least two of them were not released. We are talking about attorney Artyom Semyanov (he had defended Valentin Stefanovich, Igor Losik and Pavel Bialous). The second attorney is Yury Kozikov (he had defended Yauhen Yushkevich and political prisoner and attorney Maxim Znak). It is known that the house of Semianov and his parents was searched.

It is also known that attorneys Uladzimir Stashkevich (he was a defender in the "Autukhovich case", defended Mikalai Statkevich) and Ivan Chyzhyk (he defended Viktar Babaryka) were detained. We are currently unaware of their whereabouts.

Several more attorneys were detained yesterday, but they were released later. Attorney I. Olenskaya may be among them — a post about her appeared on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian security forces: "Tomorrow attorney Olenskaya, known among extremists, will undergo a certification, at which she will claim that she works ostensibly impartially and has nothing to do with the white-red-white [the colors of the opposition flag]-supporters.

I. Olenskaya had defended political prisoners Siarhei Tikhanovsky, Raman Protasevich, Nasta Loika and Ryhor Kostusiou, and also represented the family of the deceased Roman Bondarenko.