Belarusian civil society urges authorities to release political prisoners
On 30 June the conference of the National Platform for
the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership adopted a resolution with
such calls. Human rights defender Ales Bialiatski, who is serving a prison
term, was chosen an honourable member of the Coordinative Board of the National
Platform.
Civil society activists expressed their grave concern with and decisive protest
against the imprisonment of political and civil activists and the impossibility
of their release according to the Law “On Amnesty”, adopted by the National
Assembly of the Republic
of Belarus. Leaders of
NGOs call on the Belarusian authorities to refuse from the tactics of
confrontation, free political prisoners and stop politically motivated
persecution.
“I think that if the hearts of all people of good will continue beating and if
we can really say “Enough!” while exhaling, then the political prisoners will
be released, because the state will tremble of terror before its people – the way
it should be in a democratic state,” commented the head of the Coordinative
Board of the National Platform Uladzimir Matskevich.
It is evident for the Belarusin civil society that Mikalai Autukhovich, Ales
Bialiatski, Zmitser Dashkevich, Siarhei Kavalenka, Eduard Lobau, Pavel
Seviarynets and other prisoners have been deprived of liberty for their views. “They
have been convicted unlawfully and continue to be illegally pressurized by
representatives of prison administrations. These facts have been admitted both
insider the country and at the international level, which has been repeatedly
stated in documents of Belarusian human rights defenders, authoritative
international organizations and official structures of the European Union,”
reads the resolution of the National Platform for the Eastern Partnership Civil
Society Forum.
