News on the topic: political prisoners
24.04.2012 Statement by the Human Rights Center “Viasna”: Stop Criminal Prosecution of Vasil Parfiankou
On 19 April, Pershamaiski District Department of the Investigative Committee in Minsk notified the former political prisoner Vasil Parfiankou that he was facing criminal charges for violating the conditions of preventive supervision established by the Court of Minsk Pershamaiski District on January 5, 2012 for the period of one year.
20.04.2012 UN Calls For Release Of Belarusian Rights Defenders
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called on the authorities in Belarus to begin a dialogue with the political opposition and "to unconditionally release all remaining prisoners who are serving sentences for exercising their fundamental human rights."
20.04.2012 Pavel Sevyarynets denied parole
The release on parole was denied to him, though according to the staff of special detention facility No. 7 in the village of Kuplin “he applies his best efforts to mend his way”.
18.04.2012 Syarhey Kavalenka receives no medical attention, wife says
Doctors at the Navinki psychiatric hospital are doing nothing to help Syarhey Kavalenka recover after his debilitating hunger strike, the wife of the 37-year-old opposition activist told BelaPAN on Tuesday.
18.04.2012 U.S. Helsinki Commission calls for increased efforts to secure release of other political prisoners
“The release of political prisoners Andrei Sannikau and Zmitser Bandarenka, following 16 months of incarceration, is a step in the right direction. The Government of Belarus must take the next step and immediately and unconditionally release all of the remaining political prisoners, including Mikalai Statkevich, Ales Bialiatski, Syarhei Kavalenka, Zmitser Dashkevich, Pavel Seviarynets, Mikalai Autukhovich, Eduard Lobau, Mikalai Dziadok and others, and guarantee the full restoration of their civil and political rights," said Representative Chris Smith, Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission.
17.04.2012 Sannikau’s conviction to be preserved for 8 years
However, he is not forbidden to go abroad. The politician and ex-political prisoner has informed about it at a press conference in Minsk today.
17.04.2012 U.S. Credits Minsk For Releasing Political Prisoners
The U.S. government has called Belarus’s decision to release a former presidential candidate and his campaign manager from prison “a significant step,” but also called on Minsk to immediately release all remaining political prisoners it is holding.
17.04.2012 Mikalai Autukhovich has serious health problems
Back pain is caused by kidney problems, and also by a cold the political prisoner had caught while he was in the punitive isolation ward.
17.04.2012 Amnesty International urges Belarus to free remaining prisoners of conscience after two released
A decision to release two Belarusian prisoners of conscience including an opposition presidential candidate is a step in the right direction but the government now needs to free five others who have been in jail since 2011, Amnesty International said.
17.04.2012 Andrei Sannikau summoned to police department
Former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau has been summoned to Minsk Pershamaiski District Police Department just three days after his release on 14 April, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
17.04.2012 Statkevich shares cell with killer from “death squad”
The monitoring group of Platform association managed to get information about confinement conditions for Mikalai Statkevich in a prison in Mahilou.
16.04.2012 Valiantsin Stefanovich: Human rights defenders view pressure to force prisoners of conscience to sign petitions for pardon as torture
“We view their release as the first step by the Belarusian authorities taken as a result of the European Union’s reaction to the situation in the country,” says deputy chair of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich in his comments on the recent release of former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau and his election aide Dzmitry Bandarenka.
15.04.2012 Belarus Opposition Leader Sannikau, Former Aide Freed From Prison
MINSK -- Former Belarusian presidential candidate and leading opposition figure Andrey Sannikau has been released from prison in a surprise move that highlights Minsk's sporadic efforts to respond to Western pressure over persistent rights abuses.
13.04.2012 Political prisoners are swapped
Mikalai Dziadok has been transferred from the Mahiliou colony to the Shklou colony, Artsiom Prakapenka – vice-versa. Relatives are going for a long-term meeting with Aliaksandr Frantskevich. Ihar Alinevich makes inventions at the Navapolatsk colony.
13.04.2012 Statkevich shared cell with a person ill with tuberculosis
The former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich was kept in the same cell with a prisoner who had been ill with tuberculosis, for more than two months. This was found out by his wife Maryna Adamovich.
