MINSK. April 3 (Interfax) - A regional newspaper editor has been arrested in Belarus for spreading information that discredits the nation and the authorities, the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office said on Monday.
"The Molodechno district prosecutor has ordered that the 64-year-old editor of a regional newspaper be taken into custody. According to the materials of the criminal case, the suspect, who serves as the head of the newspaper's editorial office, and a number of other individuals deliberately published false information that discredits Belarus and its authorities in both the newspaper and on related websites between January 1, 2020, and March 15, 2023," the office said.
The editor faces up to four years' imprisonment.
According to the police, the newspaper's articles "contained false information aimed at inflicting substantial damage to state and public interests, undermining the authority of the nation and administrative bodies, harming national interests, destabilizing the situation within the Belarusian public, and creating a false impression of the non-observance of human rights and freedoms in the republic."
The Belarusian Association of Journalists, which has lost its accreditation, identified the arrestee as Alexander Mantsevich, editor-in-chief of Regionalnaya Gazeta. Founded in 1995, the private newspaper stopped publishing its paper version in July 2021. The Molodechno District Court designated the newspaper's information output as extremist material in January 2022.