Paris-Geneva,
December 23, 2022 – Nobel prize winner Ales Bialiatski, FIDH
Vice-President Valiantsin Stefanovic and lawyer Uladzimir Labkovich,
will be tried on January 5, 2023. The three face fake charges of
smuggling and financing the 2020 protests against the electoral fraud
in Belarus. The Observatory demands their release and calls for
solidarity actions in support of the imprisoned human rights
defenders in Belarus.
On
January 5, 2023, Viasna Chairman and Nobel Peace Prize 2022
laureate Ales
Bialiatski,
his deputy Valiantsin
Stefanovic,
and Viasna’s lawyer and coordinator of the “Free
Elections Campaign” Uladzimir
Labkovich
will face trial before the Lieninski District Court of Minsk, after
more than 17 months of arbitrary detention. Another defendant in this
case and Viasna member Zmister
Salauyou has
left Belarus and will be tried in absentia.
Messrs
Bialiatski, Stefanovic and Labkovich were arrested
on July 14, 2021, and held in torturous conditions ever since.
They are accused under two criminal articles:
-
“Smuggling;
illegal movement of cash across the customs border of the Eurasian
Economic Union on a large scale by an organized group” (Article
228.4 of the Criminal Code of Belarus); and
-
“Financing
of group actions grossly violating the public order” (Article
342.2 of the same Code). They face from 7 to 12 years of
imprisonment if convicted and sentenced.
The
charges are politically motivated and refer to Viasna's legitimate
human rights activities, deemed
"illegal" by the prosecution.
The
defendants are notably accused of helping victims of the Lukashenka
regime’s repression, including those protesting the 2020 election
fraud, by paying their legal fees, reimbursing fines and paying for
meals in detention centers.
The
current charges against the defendants were filed
in October 2022,
whilst since July 2021 the three were detained on the charge of “tax
evasion” (Part 2 of Art. 243 of the Belarus Criminal Code), which
was later dropped. This charge was already used to target Ales
Bialiatski in 2012, when he was sentenced
to four and a half years of imprisonment. He was released
in June 2014, after the UN Human Rights Committee ruled
that his conviction was illegal and ordered his release.
The
judicial proceedings against Bialiatski, Stefanovic and Labkovich
are marred by numerous irregularities. The investigation period has
been dragged out by the authorities, and has exceeded the legal limit
established in Belarusian law and international standards. There are
sufficient grounds to claim that this is due to a deliberate attempt
to fabricate evidence. Their pre-trial detention has been
continuously extended in closed doors hearings, even though the
Belarusian law offers alternatives in the form of house arrest. It is
believed that the authorities have kept them in inhumane detention
conditions to force them to confess.
Their
lawyers as well as the defendants themselves have been placed under a
nondisclosure obligation. For 17 months, they have been
systematically denied family visits, and medical care and access to
their lawyers have been severely limited.
The
reprisals against Viasna and its members are part of a broader
crackdown on civil society in Belarus. In 2021 alone, the authorities
shut
down
more than 275 human rights and other civil society organisations,
leaving no legally operating independent NGO in the country. In
December 2021, the authorities re-introduced criminal
liability
for working with unregistered or liquidated organisations. This led
to a de
facto
criminalisation of human rights work in Belarus. Since 2020, five
other members of Viasna were put behind bars, including Marfa
Rabkova, Andrei Chapyuk,
Leanid
Sudalenka and
Tatsiana Lasitsa.
The
persecution of Viasna human rights defenders is a flagrant violation
of their rights to liberty, fair trial and freedom of association,
enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, ratified by Belarus.
The
Observatory strongly condemns the criminal prosecution of Ales
Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic, and Uladzimir Labkovich
and reiterates its calls to the Belarusian authorities to release
them immediately and unconditionally, as well as all other human
rights defenders in Belarus, and drop all charges against them.
The
Observatory further calls on the international community and friendly
states to respond decisively with solidarity actions, public
statements and letters supporting human rights defenders of Viasna,
and by requesting to attend the trial on January 5, 2023.
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