Belarusian paper warned over ‘misleading’ article on metro blast

The Belarusian Information Ministry on Friday issued first warning to the Nasha Niva opposition paper over the publication of what it said was an inaccurate article on the April 11 terrorist act in the Minsk metro.

At least 13 people were killed and over 190 injured after a bomb went off at the Oktyabrskaya metro station, one of the city’s busiest, at rush hour on Monday evening.

Nasha Niva reported that a young woman, Marina Shubich, was lying undiscovered for several hours under debris in the Belarusian capital’s subway while President Alexander Lukashenko laid flowers at the site of the tragedy.

“The doctors have been questioned. She [Shubich] was brought to a Minsk hospital at 6:25 p.m. [long before Lukashenko visited the blast site] and was undergoing surgery until 10:10 p.m.,” Deputy Prosecutor General Andrei Shved said.

“The dissemination of such information harms society and discredits the state authorities, as well as the rescue and medical services which rendered aid to those affected by the terrorist act,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also said that a warning was given to the Narodnaya Volya paper on Thursday over the dissemination of “unchecked and misleading” information.

MINSK, April 15 (RIA Novosti) 

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