Tut.by workers to remain in custody as suspects

Relatives of some of the detained tut.by workers were told on Friday that they would continue to be held in custody as suspects, the embattled media outlet reported on Friday evening, while there were no official reports from law enforcement agencies.

In particular, Deputy Director General Iryna Rybalka, Editor in Chief Maryna Zolatava, Editor Voĺha Lojka, Chief Engineer Ala Lapatka, Deputy Chief Accountant Maryja Novik and reporter Aliena Talkačova were expected to be transferred from the detention center on Akreścina Street to Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 on Valadarskaha Street.

It was not immediately known whether the other people arrested in the tut.by case would be released or remained in custody after 72 hours’ detention.

Speaking on May 21, tut.by co-founder Kiryl Valošyn said that not all of the 15 people known to have been arrested in the case were tut.by staff.

“For some reasons that are not quite clear to us, those arrested include programmers, people that are not directly connected with tut.by, for instance the director of the Hoster.by company, which is affiliated with us,” he said. “Julija Čarniaŭskaja, the widow of tut.by founder Juryj Zisier, who has nothing to do with Tut By Media LLC`s business activities has been placed under house arrest. She doesn’t own a stake in the company and, of course, she has nothing to do with the company’s operations, just like journalists, editors and system administrators. None of them had anything to do with [the company’s] economic activities. That’s why it’s not very clear how the accusations of tax evasion can concern them.”

According to Mr. Valošyn, he, Ksienija Ivanova and Jaŭhienija Čarniaŭskaja, the daughter of Mr. Zisier and Ms. Čarniaŭskaja, are the only tut.by shareholders who remain out of jail, apparently because they are staying abroad.

Mr. Valošyn said that after access to tut.by had been blocked earlier this week, the website’s team continued their work, using its social media accounts and channel on the Telegram messaging app.

He noted that the team no longer had access to its servers, making it impossible to launch a mirror of tut.by. “As far as we understand, the servers, software, disc drives have been seized from the site where the company’s servers were located,” he said.

Websites blacklisted by the information ministry continue to be accessible to users outside Belarus. Mr. Valošyn said. However, he said, tut.by cannot be accessed either in Belarus or abroad.

He said that the company would work to update the tut.by mobile apps, try to launch a new website and delete the news stories that prompted the information ministry to block the website in an attempt to restore access to it.

Since the company’s bank account has been frozen, it cannot pay its staff at present, Mr. Valošyn said, adding that it may also have to ask some employees to take unpaid leave in the absence of advertising revenue.

Asked whether the tut.by team may consider moving abroad, he said that it was possible but warned that its new website would be blocked in Belarus.