July
14, 2023, marks two years since the arrest, arbitrary detention and
prosecution of Ales
Bialiatski,
winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize and chairperson of Human Rights
Center Viasna, along with deputy head of Viasna and Vice-President of
FIDH Valiantsin
Stefanovic and
Viasna’s lawyer Uladzimir
Labkovich. The
three human rights defenders were unjustly charged with fabricated
offenses of “smuggling” and “financing group actions that
grossly violated public order”.
On
this occasion, the Observatory releases a new report following two
covert judicial observation missions carried out to observe the trial
against these human rights defenders. The report documents the
violations committed during the unfair trial, which took place in
the Lieninski District Court of Minsk between January 5 and March 3,
2023. Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich
were respectively sentenced to ten, nine and seven
years’ imprisonment. Zmitser
Salauyou,
a Viasna member tried in
absentia
in the same case, was sentenced to eight years in prison.
“The
international and Belarusian observers present in the courtroom were
the first witnesses to the parody of justice that took place during
this trial,” said Ilya
Nuzov, head of FIDH’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia programme.
“The sight of the defendants handcuffed and locked up in a metal
cage, the refusal to hold the proceedings in Belarusian, the
unfounded claims and the subordination of witnesses are just a few
examples of the lows to which the authoritarian Belarusian regime is
willing to stoop.”
“The
serious violations of fundamental rights witnessed during the trial
of our colleagues are the culmination of a long-standing process of
criminalisation perpetrated by the Belarusian authorities against
human rights defenders,” denounced Dziyana
Pinchuk, journalist and human rights defender of Viasna.
“From the dissolution of our organisation to the heavy sentences
imposed on our colleagues, the relentless judicial harassment we have
faced has forced the Viasna activists who remain free to continue
their work in exile.”
“The
prosecution and conviction of our four colleagues from Viasna
illustrates a broader pattern of criminalisation and silencing of all
human rights organisations and defenders in Belarus,” said Eugenia
Andreyuk,
the OMCT’s Regional Programme Coordinator on
Europe and Central Asia.
“We call on the international community to use all available means
to put pressure on the Belarusian authorities to respect the rule of
law and release all human rights defenders in the country.”
The
full report is available in English on the FIDH
and OMCT websites.
For
more information, please contact:
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