31.01.2018 Supreme Court confirms fourth death sentence in 2017
Another man was sentenced to death in the fall of 2017, in addition to the three persons earlier convicted during the year, Valery Kalinkovich, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court, said at a press conference in Minsk today.
26.01.2018 Blocking of Charter-97 further attack on freedom of speech in Belarus, HRDs say
The Ministry of Information has announced official reasons for its decision to restrict access to the charter97.org website, saying the resource was spreading information that could harm the national interests of Belarus, as well as violating the Law on Mass Events and publishing materials that were recognized as extremist.
24.01.2018 Report on the registration of candidates for deputies of local councils
The election commissions did not create significant obstacles to the registration of nomination groups, with almost all groups having been registered. It should be noted that the election authorities registered all the groups formed to nominate members of political parties.
23.01.2018 REP leader Fiadynich: There is flagrant and blatant interference in trade union’s internal affairs
The Trade Union of Radio and Electronic Industry (REP) has issued a statement to condemn numerous interrogations of its activists recently conducted by the Investigative Committee.
22.01.2018 Denying registration to opposition candidates aims at securing desired turnout
Preventing a large number of candidates from the opposition to run in the local elections is the most glaring peculiarity of the phase of registration of candidates, which ended on January 18. Cases of denying registration on formal grounds have been reported by both independent observers and representatives of political parties from different regions of the country. Analysts believe the move by local authorities is a logical continuation of measures to ensure the desired voter turnout.
22.01.2018 Court sends two to death after retrial
The Minsk City Court has sentenced two persons to death after a retrial on January 20. Viachaslau Sukharka and Aliaksandr Zhylnikau were found guilty of murdering three people in December 2015. One more defendant in the case, Alina Shulhanava, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
17.01.2018 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: 2017. Analytical Review
The year was marked by a significant deterioration in the overall situation of human rights in the country as compared to the previous period of so-called ‘soft practices’, which began in August 2015 and ended with the start of mass protests in February 2017; the latter were in many ways provoked by the use of Presidential Decree number 3.
15.01.2018 Amnesty International: 2 men in Belarus at risk of imminent execution
The death sentences of Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoy were upheld by the Supreme Court of Belarus on 20 December 2017. The two men were convicted and sentenced to death by the Mahiliou Regional Court, in eastern Belarus, on 21 July 2017. In the likely event that their appeal for clemency is rejected by the President, both men will be at risk of imminent execution.
12.01.2018 Verdict in Andrei Bialiauski’s case: 1 year of home detention
The court of Leninski district of Minsk has sentenced Andrei Bialiauski, former defendant in the ‘White Legion case’, to 1 year of conditional restraint of liberty (home detention) on charges of possessing an AK-47 cartridge.
11.01.2018 Chechnya: immediately release human rights defender Oyub Titiev
(10 January 2018) We, members of the Civic Solidarity Platform (CSP), are deeply concerned at reports of the arrest of Oyub Titiev, head of Human Rights Center Memorial’s Grozny office in Chechnya on highly dubious narcotics charges. We call for his immediate and unconditional release and dropping of all charges.
08.01.2018 Report on monitoring the formation of precinct election commissions
The precinct election commissions are the key actor of the election process. It is the PECs that directly organize and conduct early voting, voting on Election Day, and home voting, counting of the votes and tabulation at the polling stations.
05.01.2018 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: December 2017
December was not marked by any significant systemic changes in the field of human rights.
24.12.2017 Report on the results of monitoring the registration of nomination groups
According to the CEC, 17,542 nomination groups were registered, which is 99.9% of the total number of nominations. In the previous elections to the local councils of 2014, the registration percentage was 99.7%.
20.12.2017 Supreme Court confirms death verdicts for 2 men
The Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of Belarus has upheld the death sentences earlier handed down to Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoi, two of the four people involved in the so-called ‘black realtors’ case’.
19.12.2017 Practice of holding peaceful assemblies in Belarus cannot be a good example, Viasna and BHC say
The experts of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee have prepared an overview of the situation with freedom of assembly in Belarus in 2016-2017. The analytical document is part of a regional project run by the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL). Earlier, the initiative presented the results of monitoring of freedom of peaceful assembly in the five Balkan countries. Now a similar review of Belarus is available online.
