A Look At The Dramatic Work Of RFE/RL Photojournalist Uladz Hrydzin, Jailed In Belarus For Covering Postelection Protests
MINSK -- A district court in Minsk sentenced RFE/RL photojournalist Uladz Hrydzin and freelance photographer Alyaksandr Vasyukovich to 11 days in jail on September 16 for "participating in an unauthorized rally."
Hrydzin, an award-winning photographer who had recently been stripped of foreign-media accreditation while working as an RFE/RL correspondent in Minsk, and Vasyukovich were found guilty of violating Belarus's law on mass gatherings on September 16.
The two photographers and another journalist were detained in a Minsk bar by a group of people wearing balaclavas on September 13, the day when tens of thousands rallied in the Belarusian capital to protest against official results from an August 9 presidential election that handed a landslide victory to the incumbent, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Uladz Hrydzin was in custody for his trial and had to participate in proceedings via Skype.
Until the authorities deprived him of his accreditation on August 29, Hrydzin had been working for RFE/RL's Belarus Service, covering the wave of anti-government demonstrations that erupted on the night of August 9-10 after Lukashenka claimed victory in an election widely seen as rigged.
Here's a selection of images that Hrydzin took for RFE/RL during Belarus's dramatic summer of political turmoil.
Unidentified people forcibly detain Paval Sevyarynets, an opposition politician who was returning from a picket, near his house on June 7.
A protester is detained on Independence Avenue in Minsk on the eve of the election on August 8.
Opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya votes at a polling station in Minsk's Vostok district on August 9.
A demonstrator who'd been beaten by police sits on the street in Minsk during the first postelection protest on the night of August 9-10.
Police try to disperse protesters with a water cannon on August 9-10.
Protesters hold cellphone flashlights aloft at a protest rally on August 9-10.
Riot police fire rubber bullets at protesters in Minsk on August 9-10.
Armed security forces move to intervene against protesters in Minsk on August 10.
Natallya Lubneuskaya, a reporter for the Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva, was shot in the leg on August 10. She is still in the hospital.
An injured protester on the streets of Minsk on August 10. Security forces used stun grenades and rubber bullets against anti-government demonstrators. Several protesters were also severely beaten.
Riot police detain people on Prytytski Street in Minsk, near where Alyaksandr Taraykouski was killed during protests on August 10. Taraykouski was one of the first people to die in the postelection crackdown, which has claimed several lives.
Security forces stop a car in Minsk and forcibly detain its occupants on the night of August 11-12.
Riot police beat a group of people while another attempts to flee on August 11-12.
The first of several massive anti-government weekend rallies was held in the center of Minsk on August 16. It's estimated that some 200,000 people attended.
A policeman addresses the crowd at a rally in Minsk on August 20.
Security forces standing behind barbed wire observe protesters during another mass rally in Minsk on August 23.
The second weekend rally on August 23 also attracted a huge crowd, estimated to be more than 100,000.
People attend the funeral of Mikita Kryutsou in Maladzyechna on August 25. Kryutsou disappeared after a protest on August 12. His body was found 10 days later. There are many questions still surrounding the nature of his death, although officials suggested it was suicide.
Workers from the BelAZ automobile plant march in Zhodzina on August 26. One of the most notable aspects of the postelection protests against Lukashenka is that many factory workers, long considered the bedrock of his base, have also participated
A screenshot of the website of RFE/RL's Belarus Service on September 17, the day on which leading independent Belarusian media left a blank space on the front page of their publications with the words, "There should have been a photo here," in solidarity with Hrydzin and Vasyukovich, who were sentenced the previous day.
RFE/RL's Belarus Service is one of the leading providers of news and analysis to Belarusian audiences in their own language. It is a bulwark against pervasive Russian propaganda and defies the government’s virtual monopoly on domestic broadcast media.
