As explained by the head of the department of the main department for combating organized crime and corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Vyacheslav Orlovsky, the Telegram channel can be recognized as both extremist material and an extremist formation.
“If he has the status of an extremist formation, then his subscribers, indeed, can become defendants in criminal cases,” he said in a commentary to the SB Belarus Segodnya newspaper.
He added that subscribing to channels recognized as extremist materials is not punishable, provided that the subscriber does not support the popularization of the resource.
“That is, it doesn’t repost, don’t transfer money, don’t lease information there.
If the listed actions exist, then the subscribers, accordingly, are brought to administrative responsibility, ”explained Orlovsky.
He stressed that "ordinary people" who "out of trivial interest or curiosity" read a banned channel, recognized as extremist material, "there is nothing to fear."
“They should unsubscribe from this resource, and there will be no questions for them,” he said.
On October 14, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic said that they had identified almost all the most active participants and administrators of extremist Telegram channels in Belarus.
Also the day before, a court in Minsk recognized the Telegram channel of the former presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya as extremist.