United Civil Party calls to consolidation with human rights defenders

The Political Council of the United Civil Party states that the criminal persecution of human rights defender Ales Bialiatski has a clear political background.

The governing body of opposition political union urges the society to consolidate with the country's human rights activists demanding the release of Bialiatski from custody. According to the UCP leader Anatol Liabedzka, by these actions the authorities want to at least disorganize activities of the Human Rights Center Viasna, but this can be stopped as a result of a wide response to the arrest of Ales Bialiatski:

“I’m far from thinking that the Belarusian authorities foresaw such response. The authorities have bad analytics and strategies. They don’t understand the European politics and don’t understand what human rights movement is. They didn’t expect such a reaction. On the contrary, they thought that by this action they will just take the human rights movement of Belarus by the throat and will smother it. They wanted to make a sign for human rights defenders not to cross the limits that are determined by the Belarusian authorities and intelligence agencies,” commented Mr. Liabedzka.