Human rights coalition adds more persons to political prisoners list

Three political prisoners released from pre-trial detention after Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s visit to the KGB prison on October 10 have been placed under house arrest. Four more were subjected to less stringent restrictions, known as release on own recognizance.

As a result, Illia Salei, Vitaly Shklyarov and Liliya Ulasava will be confined to their homes until the end of the investigation. They are also prohibited from using the Internet or receiving visitors, even their family members.

Viasna human rights activists believe that such conditions amount to imprisonment. Therefore, Salei, Shklyarov and Ulasava are still called political prisoners.

“Given the serious and significant restrictions imposed as a result of house arrest, the Human Rights Center “Viasna” continues to view the three persons as political prisoners. They continue to be in strict isolation, have no right to leave their place of residence, and are limited in their ability to communicate with other people, so we consider house arrest as detention. The Guidelines for the Definition of Political Prisoners allows us to qualify these individuals as political prisoners. In fact, they are still hostages,” human rights activist Valiantsin Stefanovich explains.

“In this regard, we once again remind the Belarusian authorities of our demands: to release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally and to stop criminal prosecution against them. Fulfillment of these requirements will mean the release of political prisoners in the full sense of the word. And only if these conditions are met, we will be able to talk about the possibilities of a dialogue inside the country,” he said.

In response to recent reports of the charges under Art. 293 of the Criminal Code (mass riots) brought against Siarhei Bryl, Andrei Papou, Pavel Niadbaila, Siarhei Liazhenka, Dzmitry Ivashkou, Yury Bialko, Dzmitry Lastouski, and Yaraslau Zbarouski, as well as under Art. 342 of the Criminal Code (group actions grossly violating public order) against Dzianis Boltuts, reaffirming the position set out in the joint statement of the human rights community of August 10, we note the following:

Freedom of peaceful assembly is guaranteed by Art. 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This freedom is not subject to any restrictions other than those established by law and necessary in democracies for the purposes of national and public security, public order, public health and morals, or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

The post-election protests were spontaneous, self-organized, and were caused by distrust of the official results of the August 9 presidential election, which were marred by numerous violations and fraud, and were not recognized by the international community as democratic, fair or free.

The assemblies were peaceful and did not pose a threat to national or public security. Despite this, the demonstrators were attacked by special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with disproportionate use of physical force, riot gear means and weapons.

For the first time in the history of Belarus, rubber bullets and water cannons were used against peaceful demonstrators. A particularly large amount of damage was suffered from the use of stun grenades.

In a statement of August 10, the Belarusian human rights community condemned the actions of law enforcement agencies and placed all responsibility for the events of August 9 and 10 on the authorities of the Republic of Belarus.

We also consider it necessary to note that the demonstrators did not commit any of the actions covered by Art. 293 of the Criminal Code and accordingly cannot be qualified as mass riots. The protesters did not set fires, destroy property or put up armed resistance to law enforcement agencies.

Isolated cases of violence against police officers by demonstrators require a separate legal qualification, taking into account the context and circumstances of the use of violence, including in the context of self-defense against knowingly disproportionate actions of police officers.

We assess the persecution of Siarhei Bryl, Andrei Papou, Pavel Niadbaila, Siarhei Liazhenka, Dzmitry Ivashkou, Yury Bialko, Dzmitry Lastouski, Yaraslau Zbarouski, and Dzianis Boltuts as politically motivated, as it is solely connected with the exercise of their freedom of peaceful assembly and expression. We, therefore, consider them to be political prisoners.

In this regard, we call on the Belarusian authorities to:

• immediately release political prisoners Siarhei Bryl, Andrei Papou, Pavel Niadbaila, Siarhei Liazhenka, Dzmitry Ivashkou, Yury Bialko, Dzmitry Lastouski, Yaraslau Zbarouski, and Dzianis Boltuts and drop the criminal charges they are facing;
• immediately release all political prisoners, as well as citizens detained in connection with the exercise of freedom of peaceful assembly in the post-election period, and put an end to political repression against citizens.

Human Rights Center "Viasna"

FORB Initiative

Advisory center on contemporary international practices and their legal implementation “Human Constanta”

Belarusian Documentation Center

Belarusian Helsinki Committee

Legal Initiative

Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House

Center for Legal Transformation “Lawtrend”

PEN Belarus

Belarusian Association of Journalists

Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities