The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

16.01.2013 Mikalai Statkevich is again persuaded to write pardon petition

The political prisoner wrote about it in a letter to his wife.

16.01.2013 Minsk authorities refuse to talk with representatives of "New Life"

The negotiations about a meeting at the Minsk City Executive Committee have lasted since the end of November when the church lawyer Siarhei Lukanin talked about it with the deputy head of the reception department.

16.01.2013 Iryna Khalip: "Don't believe to Lukashenka! I am still prohibited to leave the country"

Aliaksandr Lukashenka stated that the journalist Iryna Khalip refused to leave Belarus.

16.01.2013 Ales Bialiatski answers greetings of Baranavichy human rights defenders and civil activists

On 15 January Ales Bialiatski answered to Baranavichy human rights defenders and civil activists who had sent letters and postcards to all political prisoners on the eve of the New Year holidays.

16.01.2013 Brest: information in favor of the accused Vital Koush voiced at the court hearing

On 15 January the hearings on the case of the civil activist Vital Koush, charged with assistance to illegal migration, continued at the Brest District Court.

16.01.2013 Uladzimir Lemesh: "The police didn't let me go after the trial"

The Salihorsk activist of the "European Belarus" Uladzimir Lemesh, fined by the Pershamaiski District Court of Minsk, told about the circumstances of his detention.

16.01.2013 Two weeks pass, Andrei Haidukou gets no parcel

The Navapolatsk youth activist, charged with "high treason", is still kept in the pre-trial prison of the KGB. The investigator who is responsible for his case works at the Vitsebsk Region KGB Department.

16.01.2013 Human rights defenders appeal fines at Hrodna Region Court

The Hrodna human rights defenders Viktar Sazonau, Raman Yurhel and Uladzimir Khilmanovich, each of whom has been fined 1.5 million rubles for holding an "unauthorized picket" on 10 December, applied to the Hrodna Region Court.

15.01.2013 Lukashenka: has Bialiatski been released or not yet?

On 15 January Aliaksandr Lukashenka held a press-conference for Belarusian and foreign journalists. Answering a question he started talking about "Bialiatski or whatever". "Has he been released or not yet?", asked he a rhetorical question.

15.01.2013 Belarusian House in Prague opens its website

The motto of www.beldom.cz is "Being a Belarusian is prestigious and noble". This information was given to the BelaPAN by the coordinator, Natallia Makovik.

15.01.2013 Ministry of Justice suspends YCD registration for a month

The organizing committee of the civil association "Young Christian Democrats" received a letter from the Ministry of Justice, according to which the process of its registration with the state was suspended for a month.

15.01.2013 Salihorsk activist Uladzimir Lemesh punished with a fine

The Pershamaiski District Court of Minsk sentenced Uladzimir Lemesh, an activist of the "European Belarus", to pay a fine of 3 million rubles for alleged insubordination to the police (Article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

15.01.2013 Mikalai Charnavus files complaint to head of Supreme Economic Court

On 14 January the Baranavichy entrepreneur and civil activist Mikalai Charnavus filed a complaint to the head of the Supreme Economic Court against the verdict of the cassation panel of judges of 13 November 2012.

14.01.2013 "Flight" – animation about death penalty in Belarus (video)

The animation film, created by talented volunteers of the campaign "Human Rights Defenders against Death Penalty", dwells on the topic of the cruelty and inhumanity of the death penalty in Belarus. Our country is the last one in Europe and on the post-Soviet space where the death penalty is still used.

14.01.2013 Ales Bialiatski: "I am very grateful to the people who write me!"

In his letters of the New Year period Ales Bialiatski says that he "has been totally covered with the avalanche of letters and postcards when congratulations were added to the action of support". Sometimes he received about 500 letters a day from Belarus and abroad.