Ales Bialiatski: ‘One can speak of normalization of relations between the authorities and their political opponents only after the release of all political prisoners!’

On 5 February the college board of Mahiliou oblast court considered the cassation complaint on a criminal case against Artur Finkevich and reversed the verdict of Kastrychnitski district court of Mahiliou, according to which Finkevich was to have serve 1,5 years of jail for ‘evasion from serving his corrective labor term’.

As it is already known, the prosecutor Ihar Proshka ruled to reduce the prison term to three months and, taking into consideration the Artur’s being in custody for the three months of the investigation, release him from jail.

The vice-chairman of the International Federation for Human Rights, human rights activist Ales Bialiatski says that human rights are satisfied with the court decision on the cassation complaint on the criminal case against Finkevich and the release of the political prisoners Mikalai Autukhovich, Zmitser Dashkevich, Artur Finkevich and Vasil Liaonau witnesses the beginning of positive tendencies. ‘However, we must not calm ourselves till the political prisoner Andrei Klimau and Aliaksandr Kazulin are in jail, the youth activist Andrei Kim is kept in the investigative isolator and Aliaksandr Kruty and Valery Mysnikau are in psychiatric hospitals. We can speak about normalization of the relations between the authorities and their political opponents with more confidence only after the release of all of them!’, added Bialiatski.