MINSK, October 4. /TASS/. A defense lawyer met with Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus journalist Gennady Mozheiko, who is being kept at a Minsk detention facility, a spokesman for the kp.ru editorial board told TASS on Monday.
"A defense lawyer managed to meet with detained KP journalist Mozheiko. He is being kept at the notorious Okrestina detention facility," he said. "He was questioned in the presence of the lawyer. He is facing two charges: instigating social hatred (article 130 of the Belarusian Criminal Code) and insulting a representative of the authorities (article 369 of the Criminal Code). They are currently deciding on the measure of restraint."
The spokesman also said, citing the lawyer, that Mozheiko feels all right and has no health problems. "Our colleague was detained by the Belarusian security officers on Friday, October 1. No details were given about where he was detained - either in Moscow or in Belarus," he said.
Mozheiko was detained in the small hours on October 2 and is now kept at a detention facility in Minsk, the Komsomolskaya Pravda said on Saturday, citing his mother. She also said that Belarusian security officer had searched his flat on October 1, with articles 130 and 369 of the Criminal Code being cited as a reason for the search in the warrant.
Head of the Russian Journalists Union Vladimir Solovyov told TASS that Mozheiko was the author of an article about Andrei Zeltser, a Minsk resident, who shot dead a security officer and was killed in a shootout with law enforcers. After the article was published, Belarus’ ministry of information blocked access to the pk.by website on the grounds, as it put it, that the newspaper had published "information promoting the formation of sources of threats to national security.".