The younger brother of imprisoned Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Ihar Losik was detained in April and remains in jail in his native Belarus on extremism charges related to Russia's war against Ukraine, according to a rights group and RFE/RL sources.
Mikita Losik, 25, was detained in mid-April, the Country For Life foundation said in a Telegram post. Sources who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity for security reasons in the tightly controlled country said he was detained in the northeastern city of Orsha.
Mikita Losik is accused of "assisting extremist activity" for allegedly sending photographs of the movement of Russian military equipment in 2022 to Belaruski Hayun, a defunct independent Telegram channel that monitored military activity, sources said. He is jailed in Vitsebsk, also in the northeast.
The head of Belaruski Hayun announced its closure in February, saying Belarusian authorities had hacked into a database and gained access to information about contributors.
Several people have since been detained on extremism charges in connection with photos and video of Russian military force that were sent to the channel in the spring of 2022, around the time Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. Belarus is Russia's military ally, and authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use its territory as a staging area for the invasion.
Ihar Losik, 32, was arrested in June 2020 and sentenced in December 2021 for "organizing mass riots, taking part in mass disorder, inciting social hatred," and several other charges that remain unclear. Losik, RFE/RL, and Western governments say the charges are politically motivated.
Ihar Losik has not been heard from in about two years aside from a being paraded before a camera on a Belarusian state TV propaganda program that accused jailed RFE/RL journalists of "trying to set Belarus on fire."
In 2020, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest the result of a presidential election, which was widely considered by international observers to be rigged. The security forces responded with a brutal crackdown, arresting over 30,000 people, many of whom reported torture and ill-treatment while in custody.
The crackdown has pushed most opposition politicians to leave Belarus fearing for their safety and freedom. Many Western governments have refused to recognize the results of the 2020 election and do not consider Lukashenka to be the country's legitimate leader.
Darya Losik, Ihar's wife, was sentenced to two years in prison in January 2023 on a charge of facilitating extremist activity. She was released in an amnesty last July.
