Prominent Belarusian Rights Activist Released

Submitted by admin on Sat, 06/21/2014 - 00:00

Prominent Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalyatski has arrived in Minsk after he was released from prison.

He was welcomed at a Minsk train station by his wife Natalya Pinchuk and a group of supporters on June 21.

Byalyatski told reporters he was released under an amnesty law that came into force on June 21. The rights activist also that the domestic and international support he had received heped in getting him released early.

The law on "Amnesty in connection with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from Nazi invaders" was ratified in May.

The rights activist said he was informed about his imminent release on the same day, at nine o'clock in the morning.

Byalyatski also said he had been under pressure to ask for a pardon, but refused to do so.

Byalyatski, the 51-year-old head of the Belarusian human rights center "Vyasna," was sentenced to 4 and 1/2 years in prison in November 2011. He was convicted of tax evasion.

The charges stemmed from Byalyatski's reported use of personal bank accounts in Lithuania and Poland to receive funding from international donors in support of his human rights activities in Belarus.

Byalyatski pleaded not guilty and his supporters said the charges against him were politically motivated.

The European Union and the United States, who have repeatedly demanded Byalyatski's release, welcomed the move.

A statement by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called it "a positive development."

But the statement added, "We reiterate our call for the Government of Belarus to immediately and unconditionally release all the political prisoners who remain in detention and restore their political rights."

An EU statement said the move was "an important step by the Belarusian authorities."

The statement said it "should be followed without delay by the release of all the remaining political prisoners and the reinstatement of their full civil and political rights."

Rights activists say six people remain in prison for political activism, including former presidential candidate Nikolai Statkevich.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/prominent-belarusian-rights-activist-released/25430324.html

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News of Belarus

Belarus prisoner release: Same old trick

Submitted by admin on Sun, 08/23/2015 - 21:00

Good news from Belarus is rare, but last weekend president Alexander Lukashenko pardoned six political prisoners.

For the pardoned, all serving multi-year prison terms for challenging Belarus’ autocracy, this is, to say the least, a relief, and has been welcomed by local democrats and the international community.

Lukashenko has declared his decision an act of “humanity”. But is, in fact, a carefully timed tactical move to sway the European Union at a time of growing domestic and geopolitical pressure.

The question is whether he will succeed this time.

The International Day of Solidarity with Belarus 2015

Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 13:49

Seven countries around the world celebrated the International Day of Solidarity with Belarus on August the 4th. Human and civil rights activists, as well as other people who are simply sympathetic with the citizens of Belarus and who share deep concern about their future, took part in online discussions, talked to people on the streets and posted various material in social media in order to raise awareness of countless violations of human rights in Belarus.

Solidarity with civil society in Belarus

Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/03/2015 - 21:00

4 August is an international day of solidarity with the civil society of Belarus. This day matters, because of the daily pressure against civil society in Belarus.

When a coalition of international civil society organisations, at the initiative of the International Youth Human Rights Movement of Voronezh (Russian Federation), launched the idea of an international solidarity day with civil society in Belarus, the country was coming out of the 2010 presidential election cycle, which symbolically ended with the arrest of the country’s leading human rights defender Ales Bialiatski.

The 4 August is key to Belarus, because of Ales Bialiatski’s arrest on this day in 2011. The day is now a symbol of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s repeated practice of arbitrary arrest of voices criticising his way of governing the country.