Coordination Council member Maksim Znak detained. Kalesnikava arrested Updated

Maksim Znak, lawyer and member of the Presidium of the opposition Coordination Council, has been detained this morning by law enforcement officers.

According to Znak’s counsel Dzmitry Layeuski, the arrest is part of a criminal investigation run by the Investigative Committee.

“The grounds are unknown. Maksim Znak's apartment will be searched soon,” Layeuski said.

The authorities also raided the apartments of Maryia Kalesnikava and Illia Salei, a lawyer working with Viktar Babaryka’s campaign headquarters.

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Kalesnikava is yet unknown, after she was abducted on September 7.

Masked officers in civilian clothes on guard outside Maryia Kalesnikava's apartment. September 9, 2020. Photo: euroradio.fm

After former presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya announced the establishment of the Coordination Council, its members, particularly the members of the Presidium, have been persecuted by the authorities. Out of seven Presidium members, only one, Nobel-winning author Svetlana Alexievich, is still free and in Belarus, while others are either in detention or were forced to leave the country.

UPD. Maksim Znak and Illia Salei are facing charges under Part 3, Art. 361 of the Criminal Code ("calls for actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus committed with the use of the media or the global computer network Internet"). They are now in the Investigative Committee's headquarters in Minsk.

It also became known that Maryia Kalesnikava was arrested and is being held in pre-trial detention center No. 1 in Minsk, according her father Aliaksandr Kalesnikau.