German Ombudsman banned entry to Belarus
The Belarusian
authorities denied entry to Belarus
for Germany’s
human rights commissioner Markus Loening. The information was spread by the
German MFA.
“I very much regret that I am not welcome in Minsk,” the ombudsman noted. According to
him, the German government will continue to apply efforts to promote human
rights in Belarus.
According to the information from the MFA, Loening planned to pay a three-day
visit to Minsk
to meet with human rights activists and hand over a letter from German Foreign
Minister Guido Westerwelle to Aliaksandr Lukashenka.
Westerwelle called in the letter to solve certain criminal cases, supportingly
against political prisoners, on “humanitarian grounds”.
Loening also planned to visit the head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Ales Bialiatski, who was
sentenced to 4.5-year imprisonment for alleged tax fraud.
Markus Loening expressed his
support for the Belarusian democratic forces and called to immediately release
and rehabilitate all political prisoners.
