The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for 3 Oct 2012

03.10.2012 EU Ambassadors present a démarche to Foreign Ministry of Belarus to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty

On 2 October, to mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty (10 October), the Ambassador of Latvia to Belarus, together with the Ambassadors of France and Italy in Belarus and representatives from the European Union Delegation in Minsk presented a démarche to the Foreign Ministry of Belarus to repeatedly draw attention of Belarusian authorities to the issue of abolishing capital punishment in Belarus.

03.10.2012 Ivan Shyla gets charged with libel for complaint in connection with a strange days at a police station

As it was written in the Internet, in the beginning of July a young Salihorsk resident was put in the pre-trial prison of the Salihorsk District Police Department for disorderly conduct. Afterwards he was taken to the resuscitation department with a cranial trauma and died unconscious on 4 August.

03.10.2012 Central Election Commission gives similar answers to all appeals of Homel observers

The observers' appeals mainly concerned manipulations with the turnout at the precincts (as a rule, the numbers stated by the election commissions were twice larger than that of the observers).

03.10.2012 Ales Bialiatski writes about a great surprise and optimistic signs

In his letter of 27 September the human rights defender and political prisoner writes that he receives many postcards with congratulations on his jubilee, tells what became the greatest surprise he couldn't even imagine and reminds about the things we should always keep in mind.

03.10.2012 Political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich gets isolated from outer world

The political prisoner does not receive letters. Autukhovich's Afghan war friend, Aliaksandr Sakharuk, fears Autukhovich does not receive mail. He said this to Euroradio: “He didn't reply to two latest letters. I sent a registered letter with delivery confirmation. I will wait and see what will happen. We both served in Afghanistan. When I began to wrote him, we found out we know the same towns and even kishlaks. I call him my army friend. I want to do my best to support him, but with no success.”

03.10.2012 Amnesty International: Activist threatened with rape and torture

Activist and prisoner of conscience Zmitser Dashkevich is being threatened with rape and torture in a penal colony in Mazyr, south-west Belarus, where he was transferred after his sentence on 28 August for allegedly violating prison rules entered into force.