Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities leaders released until trial

Siarhei Drazdouski and Aleh Hrableuski, respectively director and legal advisor of the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, have been released to await their trial under travel restrictions. The charges against them, however, remain in place.

Drazdouski and Hrableuski were detained on February 3, after the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was targeted in a criminal investigation into alleged “financing of protests”. In particular, they were accused of referring several disabled persons to lawyers who helped these people defend their rights in protest-related cases.

Hrableuski was remanded in the pre-trial detention center in Minsk, while Drazdouski was placed under house arrest.

Both human rights defenders were called political prisoners by a coalition of human rights organizations.