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Former editor in chief of intellectual magazine Arche flees Belarus

Valer Bulhakaw, a former editor in chief of the Belarusian-language intellectual magazine Arche, has fled Belarus for fear of imprisonment.

As Mr. Bulhakaw says in an interview to media news site mediakritika.by posted on his Facebook page, the authorities aim to close Arche and collect evidence for a criminal case against him.

The crackdown on Arche began with the arrest of Mr. Bulhakaw, who was then its editor in chief, during a book-launch event in Hrodna on September 14. He was charged with illegal business activities for selling a book titled, Sovietization of Western Belarus, without a license and sentenced to a fine of 500,000 rubels ($58) a month later.

On September 21, the Financial Investigations Department started to audit the magazine's records and subsequently froze its bank accounts.

At the end of October, television channel Belarus One broadcast a report accusing the magazine of extremism and Nazi propaganda.

"This is a usual practice for our state security services," Mr. Bulhakaw said. "They have been ordered to pursue all leads. This suggests a parallel with the [Ales] Byalyatski case, who was first under investigation for illegal business activities."

In November 2011, Mr. Byalyatski, chairman of a human rights organization called Vyasna (Spring), was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on a charge of large-scale tax evasion. //BelaPAN