Sommerfeld calls for media to pay attention to the cases of Dmitry and Vladislav, to maybe influence the outcome of the sentence which will be outed in two days.

”We have two days to create a media outcry in the world to hopefully stop the court in Belarus from punishing the accused with death penalty. Regardless of their guilt, it’s not okay for a country in the middle of Europe to still actively use death penalty as punishment. When a life is taken, it will never return. We are fortunate to be born in a country with freedom of expression and press freedom. With freedom comes responsibility . So let’s focus the spotlight on ”Europe’s last dictatorship” and speak for the silenced,” Sommerfeld writes.

He is threatened with 7 years in prison, and the official reasons for charging him is tax evasion/ economical crimes. By tricking the authorities of Lithuania and Poland not to follow the banking secrecy, KGB got access to information about accounts, registered in Ales Byalyatskis name. It is not possible for Viasna to open an account in Belarus (and it’s also illegal for NGO’s to get any funding from foreign institutions).

International human rights organisations, the leadership of the EU and the US and a number of other democratic countries demand the release of Byalyatski. Thousands of complaints from all over the world has been sent to belarusian authorities.

It has also been announced that Belarusian embassies around the world have denied visas to human rights activist who planned to come to Minsk to attend the trial over Byalyatski, Charter 97 reports.

For more info, see:

Human Rights Center Viasna

Charter97.org

SVD (in swedish)