Belarus : Climate of fear

Limited freedom for people prosecuted or charged for politically motivated cases

In addition to the 11 detainees identified by international organisations as political prisoners, there is a group of people who have been convicted or prosecuted in politically motivated criminal cases in connection with the 19 December 2010 events and resulting in significant restrictions on their freedom of two forms:

A) Restrictions on freedom without assignment to an open correctional facility (known as domashnyaya khimiya). These individuals must be at home at an appointed time. They are regularly checked by the supervisory agency (the police) and are only allowed to travel to other cities or abroad with the permission of this agency.

Sviataslau Baranovich was sentenced to thre...

As the convictions of 24 political prisoners pardoned by the Belarusian President since August 2011 have not been expunged, a number of procedural measures have followed them as individuals with a criminal record. All individuals released have been placed on watch lists, giving police officials the right to visit them. If they are brought in on administrative charges three times in one year, they face preventative supervision, which carries more serious restrictions.

Courts have placed three activists under preventative supervision for administrative violations connected with their social activism. Violation of this regime, which places significant restrictions on the freedom of the activists, may entail repeated arrest and imprisonment. These activists are:

1) Pavel Vinahradau – Activist...

The influential international human rights watchdog has released its 2012 report.

It is stated in the report that political prisoners still remain in Belarus (5 people are named – Mikalaj Statkevich, Pavel Sevyarynets, Edward Lobau and Zmitser Dashkevich, Ales Bialiatski). Some people received additional prison terms, while civil society activists face violations of their rights to freedoms of speech, assembly and associations.

It is also stated that Belarusian human rights defenders faced various forms of harassment last year, including a the ban to leave Belarus. In 2012, 15 human rights defenders, journalists and opposition activists were sentenced to administrative detentions for swearing in public places.

Prisoners of conscience

Six people remained in prison in connection with their ...

Recommendations by Justas Paleckis, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Belarus, will be debated by the organization’s Foreign Affairs Committee on May 29.

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...