A picket in support of human rights defender Ales Bialiatski and other political prisoners in Belarus was held near the Belarusian Embassy in Stockholm on 31 January. It was organized by the Swedish human rights initiative Östgruppen in cooperation with Civil Rights Defenders, the Swedish branch of Amnesty International and the Swedish Union of Writers.
MEPs Laima Andrikiene and Eduard Kukan in their joint statement have deplored the unfair trial of both Dzmitry Kanavalau and Uladzislau Kavaliou and urgently called on President Lukashenka to establish an immediate moratorium of their death penalty. They have stressed the growing urgency for this, as both condemned can be executed now at any moment without warning, after their appeal for clemency had been rejected.
Signatures for the nomination of the Belarusian human rights defender and political prisoner Ales Bialiatski were collected in the Polish Parliament by representatives of the two biggest Polish parties – the ruling “Civil Platform” and the oppositional “Law and Justice”.
The European Union's foreign ministers agreed at their meeting on Monday to broaden the criteria for imposing "restrictive measures" on Belarusian persons and entities in response to human rights abuse and the persecution of the government's political opponents.
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