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Paris-Geneva,
September 17, 2024 - Four
years ago, on September 17, 2020, Viasna member Marfa Rabkova was
arbitrarily detained.
To
this day, she remains unlawfully imprisoned. On the fourth
anniversary of her detention, the Observatory for the protection of
human rights defenders (FIDH-OMCT) and Viasna reiterate their call
for her immediate and unconditional release, as well as the release
of the other four Viasna members detained and all human rights
defenders arbitrarily imprisoned in Belarus.
In
the evening of September 17, 2020, Marfa
Rabkova
was
violently detained by members of the Main Department for Combating
Organised Crime and Corruption, a unit of the Belarusian Ministry of
Internal Affairs. Viasna volunteer Andrey
Chapiuk
was arbitrarily arrested on October 2, 2020, just two weeks after
Marfa’s detention.
Marfa
Rabkova
was charged under ten articles of the Criminal Code, and Andrey
Chapiuk
under four, both for allegedly organising criminal groups between
2016 and 2020.
On
September 6, 2022, after
four and a half months of
closed court hearings and almost two years of pre-trial
detention,
the Minsk City Court sentenced Marfa Rabkova and Andrey Chapiuk to 15
and six years in prison, respectively. Among other charges, Marfa
Rabkova was found guilty of “organising, participating in and
training others to participate in mass riots”, “inciting social
hostility towards the government” and “involvement in a criminal
organisation”; Andrey Chapiuk was found guilty of “participating
in mass riots” and “involvement in a criminal organisation”.
Over the two years spent in pre-trial detention, Marfa Rabkova’s
health deteriorated
significantly
due to the lack of adequate medical care. Over months, she was denied
dental treatment, and suffered from abdominal pain and inflamed lymph
nodes on her neck. Marfa Rabkova’s current state of health remains
unknown. While in detention she has been also regularly denied to
meet with her family members.
Marfa
Rabkova and Andrey Chapiuk lodged an appeal against this sentence to
the Supreme Court of Belarus. On February 28, 2023, the Supreme
Court ruled to reduce Mr Chapiuk’s prison sentence from six years
to five years and nine months, and that of Ms Rabkova from 15 years
to 14 years and nine months. Since the hearing was held behind closed
doors, the grounds for the Supreme Court’s decision remain unknown.
Marfa Rabkova is serving her prison sentence in a general-security
penal colony in Homiel, and Andrey Chapiuk in the medium-security
penal colony of Ivacevičy, Brest Region. On August 14, 2024, Andrey
Chapiuk was
placed in a punitive isolation cell (SHIZO) for 10 days for an
alleged violation of the clothing regulations just before a meeting
with his parents. Additionally, both human rights defenders were
included in the “terrorist list” by
the Belarusian authorities in March 2023 and
cannot receive money transfers.
Marfa
Rabkova’s detention seems to be a reprisal for her work as a
coordinator of the volunteer services at the Human Rights Center
Viasna. Together with her colleagues, Marfa Rabkova monitored
peaceful assemblies and took an active part in the campaign of
independent monitoring of the August 9, 2020 elections called "Human
Rights Defenders for Free Elections". She also participated in
documenting evidence
of torture
and other inhuman treatment of participants detained during the
post-election demonstrations in Belarus.
The
arbitrary arrest and detention of Marfa Rabkova four years ago marked
the beginning of the brutal repression against the Human Rights
Centre Viasna which currently has five of its members behind bars. On
July 14, 2021, the Belarusian authorities detained
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Viasna chairperson Ales
Bialiatski,
FIDH Vice President Valiantsin
Stefanovic
and Viasna lawyer
Uladzimir Labkovich
in an unprecedented raid against Belarusian civil society. Convicted
on fabricated charges to heavy prison terms, they remain unlawfully
imprisoned at the date of publication of this statement, and are
regularly subjected to severe harassment and ill-treatment.
The
reprisals against Viasna and its members are part of a broader
crackdown on civil society in Belarus, especially following the mass
protests against the falsified 2020 Presidential elections. In the
aftermath of the protests, the authorities shut down all human rights
and other independent organisations, leaving not one legally
operating human rights NGO in the country. Viasna is one of the
leading Belarusian human rights organisations and is at the forefront
of the Belarusian human rights movement. According to the
organisation, as of September
17, 2024, 1358
individuals
remained detained in the country for political reasons
according to the information of national human rights organisations.
The
Observatory and Viasna reiterate their strong condemnation of the
arbitrary imprisonment of Marfa Rabkova, and urge the authorities to
quash her sentence and release her immediately and unconditionally.
The Observatory and Viasna further urge the Belarusian authorities to
immediately and unconditionally release Viasna members Ales
Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic, Uladzimir Labkovich and Andrey
Chapiuk, as well as all other human rights defenders arbitrarily
detained in Belarus.
The
organisations underline that the politically motivated, arbitrary and
severe harassment and ill-treatment of human rights defenders and
political prisoners in general in Belarusian prisons needs to stop
immediately, and urge the Belarusian authorities to respect all their
international human rights obligations.
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