Iryna Khalip warned "You will meet with Anna Politkovskaya"

On November 22, she received an email with the subject line: "Greetings from Boris." The text of the email read "Irka, if you won't remove the article you will meet with Anna Politkovskaya, or tomorrow you will meet with intoxicated niggers. With love, BA" (BA refers to Boris Abramovich, Berezovsky's first name and patronymic).

Khalip called London and spoke with Berezovsky, who assured her that he had not sent her the email. 

Khalip then gathered additional information for her article at the request of her editors.

On the evening of November 25, she received a call on her mobile phone from a public pay phone. An anonymous male caller said, "You have been warned, bitch, haven't you? If the article is published, you must not leave your house anymore."

On the evening of November 26, she received a telegram from Moscow with clear references to her phone conversations of the prior few days: "Hero of Europe the matter does not concern Pal Palych (Pavel Pavlovich) but Vladimirovich drink Hennessey and drink health of your son if you do not care for your health."

In the days before she received the telegram, Khalip had discussed Pavel Pavlovich (Pal Palych) Borodin in a phone conversation with her editors at Novaya Gazeta. She told them that Emmanuel Zeltser was the New York lawyer for Borodin.  (A Russian official and politician, Borodin was arrested in New York in 2001 for money laundering. He was later released.) During another phone conversation, Khalip asked her husband to buy Hennessy cognac at a duty free shop.  Finally, her son had been ill and she made several phone calls relating to his health.

The telegram was sending the message that she was being watched, says Khalip. "All my actions are under control."

When asked about the source of the threats, she told the Charter 97 Web site, "Only those who have a possibility to intercept emails of others could make threats to me. In our country it's a prerogative of secret services. ... KGB servicemen are used to stay nameless and faceless in the crowd. They do not like when their illegal and sometimes criminal actions become known ... ."

Khalip and her editors decided to publish her story in Novaya Gazeta. It appeared on December 9.

• See Khalip's article in Novaya Gazeta.
• Read the English version of the story.

THE ACCIDENTAL ACTIVIST:
FOR JOURNALIST IRINA KHALIP, EXPOSING INJUSTICE IN BELARUS ISN'T JUST A JOB--IT'S PERSONAL

Irina Khalip remembers clearly the day she stopped being a journalist and started to become an activist. It was April 2, 1997, and thousands of people had rallied in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, to protest the proposed unification of Belarus with Russia. Pushed by the country's authoritarian President, Alexander Lukashenko, the merger was seen by many as an attempt to re-create the Soviet Union. Khalip went to cover the protests in Minsk with her father, Vladimir, a documentary filmmaker. When riot police broke up the protest, Khalip and her father were caught in the melee. "It was the most horrible day of my life," Khalip, 37, says, recalling how cops clubbed her and dragged her by her hair. Her father was beaten unconscious.

"Before that, I'd been covering street actions as a journalist," she says. "Since then, I've been there as an activist." And Khalip continues to harass the authorities. Last week, the Office of the Prosecutor General warned her that she could face up to five years in jail for writing articles it described as "calling for the violent overthrow of the constitution." Quips Khalip: "At least they didn't beat me up this time."

As deputy editor in chief of the BDG Delovaya Gazeta, a privately owned biweekly paper, Khalip takes on corrupt officials and even Lukashenko himself. She's regularly subjected to nightlong interrogations by police. The risk is serious: "During Lukashenko's rule, some 4,000 people have been imprisoned for political reasons," says Andrei Sannikov, an opposition leader. At least three opposition activists have disappeared since 1999.

Khalip is determined to carry on. "I'd like to be the Belarusian answer to [Yuliya] Tymoshenko," she says, referring to a leader of Ukraine's orange revolution and, until recently, the country's Prime Minister. "Without the premiership, of course." --

Editorial Board of Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta Is Fined 23 000 Dollars

From Viasna

Minsk Kastrychnitski Borough Court ruled to fine the editorial board of BDG. Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta 50 million rubles (more than 23 000 US dollars) and the journalist Siarhiei Satsuk - 5 million rubles for the benefit of the former riot squad officer Siarhiei Biadrytski.
In June 2005 the former policeman sued to the court concerning protection of his honor and dignity. The matter is that #70 of the newspaper, dated 20 May 2003 had the article "Advertisement action" by Siarhiei Satsuk, devoted to investigation of the criminal case against two persons who were accused in several crimes. One of these persons is the plaintiff. He demanded 100 million rubles compensation from Marat enterprise (the newspaper founder) and 10 million rubles from the journalist. The trial started this summer, but was suspended because of absence of the plaintiff's lawyer. On 29 September the court hearings were resumed.

According to the information of the defense lawyer Larysa Atamanchuk, who represented BDG interests, the court partially satisfied the suit. The published information was found corrupt and insulting for the plaintiff's honor and dignity. The editorial staff of the newspaper was obliged to publish a disproval within 30-day term and pay 50 million rubles to the plaintiff. Mr. Satsuk was also fined 5 million rubles for the benefit of Siarhiei Biadrytski.

Press-service of Belarusian Association of Journalists

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