Dzianis Jaŭhienavič Ivashyn (also Dzyanis Ivashyn, Denis Ivashin; ; ; born 6 June 1979,

Hrodna Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman River, from Minsk, about from the border with Poland, and from the border with Lithuania. Grodno serves as the ad ...

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

) is a Belarusian journalist. He works as a freelance correspondent of

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian ''

Novy Chas ''Novy Chas'' ( ; ''New Time'' in English) is an independent weekly newspaper published in Belarus. History and profile ''Novy Chas'' was established on 1 March 2007 as a successor to ''Zgoda (newspaper), Zgoda'' which was shut down in 2007. The ...

'' newspaper and a volunteer investigator of the Ukrainian

Inform Napalm InformNapalm is a volunteer initiative to inform Ukrainian citizens and the foreign public about the Russo-Ukrainian War and the activities of the Russian special services as well as the militants of DPR, LPR, and Novorossiya. The team members ...

project. He was arrested in 2021 by the Belarusian KGB and charged with

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

. His colleagues believe that this arrest was connected with his publications about former Ukrainian Berkut members employed by the Belarusian police.

Journalist

Ivashyn participated in the 2014

Euromaidan Euromaidan ( ; , , ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. The p ...

in Ukraine, and later that year he entered the Ukrainian investigative project

as an editor of its Belarusian edition. In 2018, he became a freelance correspondent of ''

'' newspaper. His main publications were dedicated to the foreign influence of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, commercial development near the Kuropaty mass grave of the 1930s'

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and employment of former Ukrainian Berkut members by the Belarusian police. In 2017, he was sentenced to 5 days of prison for committing

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

at the

Freedom Day Freedom Day may refer to any of the following days: National and international * National Religious Freedom Day on 16 January in the United States, to commemorate the adoption of Thomas Jefferson's landmark Virginia Statute for Religious Freedo ...

meeting. On 12 March 2021, Ivashyn was detained in

by the Belarusian KGB. His detention happened soon after he published an article about Berkut members in the Belarusian OMON. According to Ivashyn, who claimed to use only open source material, more than 10 former Berkut members who had left Ukraine served in Belarusian OMON as soldiers, ensigns and officers. He claimed that granting Belarusian citizenship to them and recruitment to police involved legal violations, and stated that several former Berkut members participated in the suppression of the 2020 Belarusian protests. Originally, Ivashyn was charged under article 365 of the Belarusian Criminal Code ("Interference in the activities of a police officer"). On 30 October 2021, it was uncovered that he was also charged under article 356 ("High treason"). His lawyer signed a nondisclosure agreement preventing him from disclosing information about the inquiry. Ivashyn was placed in the punishment cell () at least 5 times (30 days). According to his wife, he had a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

during his second stay in the punishment cell. His relatives claim that his right to correspond was artificially restricted by the prison manager. On 24 March 2021, 8 Belarusian human rights organizations recognized Ivashyn as a political prisoner and called for his immediate release.

European Federation of Journalists The European Federation of Journalists is the European regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists. It describes itself as the largest organisation of journalists in Europe, and says it represents about 320,000 journalists ...

demanded immediate release of Ivashyn.

Seán Haughey Seán Haughey (born 8 November 1961) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay North constituency from 2016 to 2024, and previously from 1992 to 2011 for the Dublin North-Central constitue ...

, Irish member of Parliament, became a "godfather" (sponsor) of Ivashyn. In March 2023, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of the Pahonia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ivashyn, Dzianis 1979 births Living people Belarusian journalists Political prisoners in Belarus Political prisoners according to Viasna Human Rights Centre