Belarus: Three years after their arbitrary arrest, Viasna members must be immediately released

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Paris, Vilnius, Geneva, July 17, 2024. On the early morning of July 14, 2021, the Belarusian authorities started an unprecedented raid against Belarusian human rights defenders, activists and journalists across the country, searching their offices and private apartments, and seizing documents and technical equipment. In particular, law enforcement officers conducted a raid in Viasna's offices and apartments of team members, and arrested Viasna members Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, along with other members of the organisation.

After spending almost 18 months in pre-trial detention, the trial against Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich began on January 5, 2023 before the Lieninski District Court of Minsk. Based on the fabricated charges of "smuggling by an organised group" and "financing of group actions grossly violating the public order", on March 3, 2023, judge Maryna Zapasnik sentenced Ales, Valiantsin and Uladzimir to ten, nine, and seven years of imprisonment, respectively. Additionally, Viasna member Zmitser Salauyou was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment in absentia. Despite evident violations of the right to a fair trial, the judgement was later upheld on appeal.

The Observatory and Viasna are particularly alarmed about the appalling conditions in which Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich are being held. Recently, it became known that Ales Bialiatski is systematically denied contact with his relatives, who only sporadically receive short letters from him. Likewise, Mr Bialiatski apparently does not receive letters and parcels from outside, including parcels with medical supplies, which the prison administration refuses to accept on his behalf. In November 2023, Mr Bialiatski was placed in a cell-type space (PKT) for approximately six months, from which he was released in April or May 2024, and is now forced to do exhausting work in a woodworking factory. His state of health remains unknown.

This is congruent with the findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus. In her latest report published in May 2024, she stated that "inmates convicted on politically motivated charges reportedly wear a special yellow mark, have arbitrary restrictions on communication with families and lawyers imposed on them, are frequently transferred to 'punitive isolation cells' (SHIZO) and 'cell-type spaces' (PKT), notorious for inhuman detention conditions, where they find themselves in solitary confinement and incommunicado detention", as "disciplinary sanctions for petty and far-fetched transgressions of penitentiary rules".

The Observatory and Viasna strongly condemn the unlawful imprisonment of Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, and urge the Belarusian authorities to quash their sentences and to immediately and unconditionally release them. The Observatory and Viasna further urge the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release unlawfully imprisoned Viasna members Marfa Rabkova and Andrey Chapiuk, as well as all other human rights defenders and prisoners in Belarus convicted under politically motivated charges.

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.

The Observatory and Viasna also urge the international community to use all available measures to ensure that justice, accountability and reparations are provided to all human rights defenders arbitrarily imprisoned.

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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.

Viasna is one of the leading Belarusian human rights organisations and is at the forefront of the Belarusian human rights movement. It is notably famous for its list of political prisoners in Belarus, which, as of July 12, 2024 counted 1403 persons. Together with FIDH's member organisations Centre for Civil Liberties and Memorial, in 2022, Ales Bialiatski, founder and chairperson of Viasna, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.