Eduard Lobau met with his mother and brother Vlad in penal colony No. 22 in Ivatsevichy. The visit lasted 3 days. Maryna Lobava says her son is fine, Radio Racyja reports.

She says the political prisoner sent his best wishes to everyone who remembers and supports him.

“Eduard thinks much about his future. He has served the larger part of his sentence. His 4-year sentence expires in 1 year and 7 months. It’s not a long term in comparison with what other political prisoners have,” Maryna Lobava says.

Eduard doesn’t want to talk about a possibility of applying for a pardon. “He doesn’t hope for early release and doesn’t believe it is possible. If they wanted, they would have released him long ago. What hinders them? Perhaps their vanity...

Belarus –  Abuse of prison regulations against imprisoned human rights defender Mr Ales Bialiatski

On 16 May 2013, the wife of human rights defender Mr Ales Bialiatski went to the Babruisk colony No.2, where her husband has been held since February 2012, in order to bring him a food parcel. However, the food parcel was refused by prison officials, who informed her that in March 2013 Ales Bialiatski’s right to receive food from visitors had been suspended for six months.

This incident is not the fist time that disciplinary measures have been used against Ales Bialiatski. Between March and June 2012, he received three reprimands, one of which resulted in the loss of visitation rights...

The political prisoner Ales Bialiatski, head of the Viasna Human Rights Center, does not believe that he will be released soon and devotes all his free time in prison to his creative work.

The human rights defender Tatyana Revyako received a letter from Bialiatski in which he addresses this issue. The letter is dated May 6, right after Easter. This is significant because there were hopes that political prisoners might be released over this holiday.

Tatyana reports that “He wrote that he really didn’t expect to be released because he had not received any specific signs that his fate or, I would think, the fate of any other political prisoners, would change significantly at this time...

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), addresses the Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs with a request to implement Decision A/HRC/WGAD/2012/39 of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the case of human rights defender Ales Bialiatski.

On May 16 Natalya Pinchuk visited her husband, Ales Bialiatski, at Babruisk Penal Colony, where he is being held.

Radio Svaboda reports that Natalya intended to leave a package for her husband when she learned that he had been deprived of the right to receive food packages from March to August.

“I don’t know what violation he is being punished for, and I didn’t bother asking. It’s a rhetorical question. They’ll find a reason if they want to,” noted Natalya.

According to Natalya, Ales called home in early May, and he usually doesn’t complain about anything in the letters that reach her.

Natalya was able to leave her husband a sweat suit, bed linen, and other items. These made up the only clothing package that he is allowed to receive annually.

Over the past year, Ales Bialiats...

Speaking at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty headquarters in Prague on May 9, European Union enlargement chief Štefan Füle addressed a variety of issues related to the enlargement aspirations of the six Eastern Partnership countries and the nations of the Western Balkans. But he reserved his strongest rhetoric for the two countries that have traditionally been at opposite ends of the enlargement spectrum.

Füle said Belarus, which remains under EU sanctions following a flawed presidential vote in 2010 and a massive crackdown on opponents, has seen civil liberties strangled by autocratic leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

“In Belarus, it is not only political prisoners; it is the level of the democracy, the level of the rule of law in Belarus, it is the the absence of free and fair elections ...

In the official letter Aleh Hruzdzilovich was accused of violating journalists’ professional ethics and public morals.

On May 8 the journalist was summoned to the prosecutor’s office “to clarify circumstances regarding a violation of law”.

An employee of the prosecutor’s office Natallia Zhukavets questioned the journalist about how he prepared his book and report “Who bombed Minsk subway?” Before the second anniversary of the tragic explosion on April 11, Aleh Hruzdziovich made a security test in the subway and wrote at which stations the police inspected his valise. The journalist agreed to answer all questions, “even in a written form”.

“After the prosecutor received all answers to her questions, she took out a warning from the table, prepared and signed beforehand, ab...

The Spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, issued the following statement today:

“The High Representative regrets the death sentence recently handed down to an individual by the Mahilyow Regional Court. She hopes that his right to appeal will be fully exercised.

She is conscious of the serious nature of the crime for which this individual has been convicted. However, she does not believe that capital punishment can ever be justified. The European Union opposes capital punishment under all circumstances...

In two separate court hearings a blogger Dzmitry Halko and a journalist of “Radio Racyja” Aliaksandr Yarashevich were found guilty of petty hooliganism (art. 17.1) and disobedience to police (art. 23.4) and sentenced to 10 and 12 days’ arrest respectively.

The journalists were detained on May 6 in the evening: they worked near the detention center in Akrestsina where civil activists, politicians and other journalists gathered to meet arrestees of April 26th. After the event they were coming close to the nearest subway station, but were detained and brought to the Maskouski district police department.

The trials started at noon and finished only at 7 pm. The judge for Dzmitry Halko was Yauhen Hatkevich, and the judge for Aliaksandr Yarashevich was Tatsiana Matyl.

According to the detention ...