Azernews.Az

MINSK – Belarusian journalist Henadz Barbarych was briefly detained by the Committee for State Security (KGB) while interviewing relatives of jailed activists, Radio Liberty's Belarus Service reports.

Barbarych -- a correspondent for Radio Ratsiya, a station broadcasting in Belarusian to Belarus from neighboring Poland -- was inside the Dzerzhinsky Culture House near the KGB headquarters talking to relatives of activists jailed on December 19 during a postelection protest.

A man approached Barbarych and asked him to drop by the KGB's office. Barbarych later phoned the Association of Belarusian Journalists to report that he was "asked to enter KGB headquarters for a talk, and his documents were taken for verification."

Barbarych was later released. He told Radio Liberty that KGB officers asked him to delete from his tape recorder all the interviews he had conducted with relatives of jailed activists, which he did. The KGB then returned his documents and released him.

Hundreds were detained for protesting against alleged fraud in the December 19 presidential election, which returned incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka to power.