“Belarusy i rynok” reporter seeks political asylum

• 5.08.2008, 14:43

Volha Birukova, a journalist of the newspaper “Belarusy i rynok”, has asked for a political asylum in London. However no details or comments are offered by the journalist.

A political analyst of the newspaper “Belarusy i rynok” Paulyuk Bykouski told to “Radio Svaboda”:

“She said that her life was menaced. She couldn’t tell on the phone what kind of danger it is. She wrote about financial issues, about world economy for our newspaper. Beside our newspaper, she cooperated with the BBC crews which arrived to cover elections and so on. I do not exclude that she could encounter some problems because of that. When a crew of the BBC Scottish TV arrived last time, they interviewed Alyaksandr Lukashenka. And there was an incident with a seized cassette then. Law-enforcing agencies seized a cassette with some recording from them. But I do not have a possibility to ask Volha Birukova about details, if she does not give details herself”.