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Today
marks two years since Viasna members Ales
Bialiatski,
Valiantsin
Stefanovic
and Uladzimir
Labkovich were convicted and sentenced to heavy prison sentences
following an unfair trial under fabricated charges. On this occasion,
the Observatory for the protection of human rights defenders
(FIDH-OMCT) reiterates its call for their immediate and unconditional
release, and for the end of the targeting of all Belarusian human
rights defenders.
Paris-Geneva,
3 March,
2025 –
Two years ago, on 3 March 2023, judge Maryna Zapasnik from the
Lieninski District Court of Minsk sentenced
Ales
Bialiatski,
Chairman of the Human Rights Center Viasna and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize
winner, Valiantsin
Stefanovic, Deputy
Head of Viasna and Vice-President of FIDH, and Uladzimir
Labkovich,
a lawyer at Viasna, to ten, nine, and seven years of imprisonment,
respectively.
The
conviction of the three human rights defenders was based on
fabricated charges of “smuggling by an organised group” and
“financing of group actions grossly violating the public
order”.Their sentences were upheld
on appeal on 21 April 2023 by the Minsk Municipal Court.
The
Observatory recalls that the three human rights defenders were
arbitrarily arrested
on 14 July 2021 as part of coordinated
raids and arbitrary arrests
of human rights defenders, journalists and civil society
organisations, and spent almost 18 months in pre-trial arbitrary
detention before the beginning
of their trial
on 5 January 2023. Since their arrest, Messrs Bialiatski, Stefanovic
and Labkovich have been arbitrarily detained in appalling
conditions,
in which their state of health has deteriorated significantly.
The
reprisals against Viasna and its members are part of a broader
crackdown on civil society in Belarus 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. Viasna is also
a recipient of numerous prestigious awards for its adamant stand for
human rights and democracy, including the Right Livelihood Award
(2020) and the “Justice for Democracy Advocates” Albie Award
(2022).
As
part as the harassment against the organisation, Viasna members Marfa
Rabkova and
Andrei Chapiuk
have
been arbitrarily detained
since 17 September and 2 October 2020, respectively, on charges of
allegedly organising criminal groups between 2016 and 2020. On 6
September 2022, the Minsk City Court sentenced Marfa Rabkova to 15
years in prison and Andrei Chapiuk six years in prison. Likewise,
Leanid
Sudalenka,
head of Viasna’s regional office in Homiel, was arbitrarily
detained
and released only in July 2023, after serving his three-year sentence
in full.
The
Observatory strongly condemns the unfair conviction and ongoing
arbitrary detention of Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic,
Uladzimir Labkovich, Marfa Rabkova and Andrei Chapiuk, and denounces
the politically motivated, arbitrary and severe harassment and
ill-treatment they have been subjected to since the beginning of
their detention.
The
Observatory urges the Belarusian authorities to quash their
sentences, to immediately and unconditionally release them and all
other prisoners in Belarus convicted under politically motivated
charges, and to put an end to all acts of harassment against them,
including at the judicial level. The Observatory further urges the
Belarusian authorities to respect all their international human
rights obligations, and calls on the international community to use
all available measures to ensure that justice, accountability and
reparations are provided to all human rights defenders arbitrarily
imprisoned in Belarus.
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