Death of Andrei Zeltser
Andrei Zeltser, a Belarusian IT worker, was killed in Minsk on September 28, 2021 by members of the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus (Belarusian KGB) who conducted a raid on his apartment. After a door breaching, a shootout took place, in which Zeltser fatally shot one of the agents, and was subsequently killed by the KGB members. Zeltser was subsequently called a "terrorist" by the government. According to the state-owned Belarusian Telegraph Agency, "members of an extremist group with ties to the opposition, supposedly, lived in the apartment", referring to Zeltser, 31 , and his wife, who was arrested. Andrei Zeltser. Andrei Zeltser (; ) was an opposition supporter and has been described as a dissident. According to a media report, on August 16, 2021 he posted an image of the white-red-white historical flag of Belarus (which has been used as a symbol of the opposition to the regime of Alexander Lukashenko) and "made a call to the people to unite and fight for the future of the country". He worked for EPAM Systems, a Pennsylvania-headquartered software engineering company started by Belarusians. There was speculation that Zeltser was a citizen of the  United States; a U.S. official said that more information on this is being sought. Aftermath. An edited video of the incident, which was recorded on multiple cameras, was broadcast by Belarus state TV channels. This was followed by arrests of more than 100 people in connection to social media comments about the event, on charges of insulting a government official or inciting social hatred. Among the arrested was journalist , a correspondent of the Belarusian version of Komsomolskaya Pravda ("KP v Belorusi"). Mozheiko was detained in Moscow and sent to the Okrestina Detention Centre in Minsk. The Daily Telegraph reported on  an allegation that he was subject to extraterritorial abduction in Moscow, by Belarusian agents; the official Belarusian account is that he was arrested in Belarus, upon crossing the border. He was jailed for publishing an article about Zeltser, where a former classmate recalled Andrei as a nice person. Mozheiko's article was published on September 28, 2021, and was deleted the next morning. The website of Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus was blocked by authorities on the same day; the newspaper ceased its operations in Minsk. Russia expressed dissatisfaction over these developments, based on an expectation that work of "[their] media  outlets" would not be interfered with, while also citing freedom of the press. Nevertheless, the Belarusian authorities charged Mozheiko with 'whitewashing a criminal'. As of October 16, 2021, Mozheiko is charged with 'inciting hatred' and 'an insult to a representative of the authority' under the articles of the State Criminal Code. On 1 October 2021, at the funeral of the KGB officer killed during the raid, Major General Oleg Belokonev publicly called for murdering members of the opposition as a revenge against hypothetical killings of state security officials: Lukashenko held a minute's silence to honor the agent who was  killed, and said that the government would "not forgive them [opposition supporters] for the death of this guy." Prominent opposition activist Pavel Latushko said that "a fair investigation (of the incident) is impossible under Lukashenko", and: "Not only Andrei Zeltser — a calm, kind and compassionate man — has been declared a terrorist. All of those who disagree with the regime have been declared terrorists." By November 3, 2021, more than 136 people are detained for 'trying to whitewash' Zeltser's name in social networks. For more than a month people are denied access to lawyers, human rights activists tell media that  the administration of jails forbid to send them basic necessities.