News Alert: Index award nominees attacked in Belarus

Reports are reaching Index on Censorship that the office of Charter 97, the Belarusian democracy campaigning organisation, has been raided by authorities. Computers and other equipment have been seized and Head of Press Natalia Radzina is believed to have been beaten.

Meanwhile the home of Andrey Sannikov (International Coordinator of Charter’97, who has announced his intention to run for president of Belarus this year) and his wife, journalist Irina Khalip, was searched for three hours by police.

Charter 97 has been nominated for the 2010 Index on Censorship/Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award.

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Sexual threats against editor in Belarus

Natalia Radizina, the editor of Charter 97 an oppostion news website in Belarus has received an email threatening violence of a sexual nature if she was not careful about what she chose to post. This followed a report by Charter 97 on a pro-Russian neo-fascist group. The website and those who work there have been subject to a long campaign of harrassment by the authorities. Read more here