Statement by High Representative Catherine Ashton on the release of Belarusian former Presidential candidate Andrei Sannikaw

Brussels, 15 April 2012. Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, issued the following statement:
 
"I welcome the news that former Presidential candidate Andrei Sannikaw  as well as his main campaign aide Dzmitry Bandarenka are now free and will be able to rejoin their families and friends.

Read more:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/...

News of Belarus

Raman Kisliak applies against inclusion in lawbreakers' database

Тhe unlawful inclusion of the human rights defender in this database by the police became the reason for his detention and subsequent fingerprinting on 8 November.

In the appeal, filed by Raman Kisliak t the head of the Leninski District Police Department of Brest, it is stated that the inclusion him in the database of lawbreakers by officers of the Leninski DPD is unlawful, as far as they have neither addressed him in connection with the procedure of dactylography nor presented him any administrative charges lately.

Show solidarity with ARCHE!

“ARCHE” is the only thick monthly magazine in the Belarusian language which has been regularly issued since 1998. However, the events that have been taking place since the arrest of it’s the then chief editor Valer Bulhakau can put a cross on the further existence of the edition.

Belarus: PACE committee proposes the nomination of Ales Bialiatski for the 2013 PACE Human Rights Prize

Strasbourg, 04.10.2012 – In a statement adopted today in Strasbourg, the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) announced its unanimous decision to support the proposal by Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, to nominate Ales Bialiatski – the human rights defender sentenced on 24 November 2011 to four and a half years’ imprisonment – for the 2013 PACE Human Rights Prize.