According to Belarusian independent media, the former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich, in prison since the presidential election in December 2010, has been sent to the punishment cell in Mahilyou prison No. 4 for violating the ”rules of wearing clothes” in penal colony No. 17 in Shklou.

On January 17, Statkevich’s wife Maryna Adamovich visited prison No. 4 in Mahilyou with Statkevich’s lawyer Syarhei Novik. Adamovich met with the prison chief Alyaksandr Lamaza and Novik talked to the political prisoner. According to the lawyer, Statkevich will remain in the punishment cell until January 24.

Isabel Sommerfeld singing words by Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu in Belarusian, at Medborgarplatsen, Stockholm.
Photo: Maria Söderberg.

The 19th of December 2011, one year since the electoral fraud and presidential election in Belarus, a solidarity meeting was held in Stockholm at Medborgarplatsen. For 12 hours, people arrived to the square to read poems written by Belarusian poets/writers, for freedom of speech in Belarus.

Founder of Info Belarus, Isabel Sommerfeld, also took part in the solidarity meeting, singing a song written by the Belarusian musician Pavel Arakelian, with lyrics based on a poem by the famous Belarusian poet and former presidential candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu.

On the 19th of December 2011, one year since the presidential election in Belarus, the ukrainian FEMEN activists Inna Shevchenko, Oksana Shachko and Aleksandra Nemchinova organized a flash mob and stripped topless in front of the Belarusian KGB headquarters, screaming ”Long live Belarus!” and ”Freedom to political prisoners!” They later on disappeared and their friends could not reach them on their mobile phones.

According to our sources, and also independent media in Belarus, the activists have been found today in the Yelsk district of the Homel region, badly beaten, with shaved hair, naked, without phones or documents, tied to a tree in the woods. The girls don’t know who detained them but suppose it was officers of KGB and police. This information has been confirmed by the leader of the Ukrainian group, Anna Gutsol, who received a phone call from the girls.

http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2011/12/20/45991/

http://rt.com/news/lukashenko-kgb-femen-missing-235/

http://www.themoscownews.com/international/20111220/189305026.html

”We were shocked by the verdict. We are afraid. Vlad is not involved in this crime, they could shoot a completely innocent person, it is terrible. They lied about everything, what Fedartsov read today is not true to the preparatory stage . They turned everything into what they needed, they ignored entirely what the FSB (Russian security Service) said in their expert opinions, they failed to mention many details. They painted a picture of the guys like monsters, but they are not! We will do what we can … We will write to the president and ask him to pardon them. I’m so afraid of what will happen to my brother. I can’t talk more now. ” – Tatiana, sister of Vladislav Kavaliou, who was today sentenced to death in Belarus.

Belarusian State TV have been propagating about punishing the young men with death penalty for a few days now, even before the verdict was announced. So it doesn’t come as a chock for anyone. Dmitry and Vladislav have been sentenced to death, even though the only ”proof” against them is a confession which was made during a questioning with the KGB, before they were driven to hospital for internal bleedings (they were badly beaten and probably also tortured).

Anyone confesses crimes if under torture. There is a possibility that Dmitry and Vladislav are not guilty. Once their lives are taken, there is no way of changing the sentence.

We urge the world’s journalists and politicians to strongly take a stand against the Belarusian court’s decision. Death penalty should not be a reality, year 2011 in Europe!

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)

Info Belarus project manager Isabel Sommerfeld will today take part in a seminar organized by Amnesty International in Sweden, where you will be able to hear her talk about her trips to Belarus and the presidential election in 2010.

Since today is the International Day Against Death Penalty, Amnesty will be informing about Belarus, the only state in Europe and the former Soviet Union still using death penalty. Brita Grundin from Amnesty will be talking about the use of death penalty in Belarus.

The seminar will take place in Amnesty Swedens office in Stockholm: Alsnögatan 11.
Welcome to join at 5:30-8:00 pm.

Police men are personally calling students and forcing them to sign this ‘contract’. This is a way of putting psychological pressure on students.

“I was told that police were looking for me when I was out. I called the police and they told me I had to sign a document saying I know that actions are unauthorized events that carry punishment, etc. When I asked why they called me and not anyone else, he said he couldn’t answer, but he had just been given a list of persons,” a student told Radio Racyja.

To the prosecuting authorities of Belarus,
concerning the recent case detention of Mr Ales Bialiatski.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I write to you in great concern regarding the detainment of Mr Ales Bialiatski on August 4th.

Mr Bialiatski through his work as Chairperson of the Viasna Human Rights Centre provides significant services to the Belarusian people. His work is crucially important. In spite of this, he and the Viasna organisation face political persecution, orchestrated by the Belarus regime. It is of double concern, therefore, that Mr Bialiatski as a known representative of those who struggle for freedom and human rights in Belarus now risk a long imprisonment, on faulty and politically motivated grounds. Mr Bialiatski must be considered a political prisoner.

Belarus has, unfortunately, a tarnished record of unlawfully holding political prisoners, of mistreatments amounting to torture reported from state prisons, and of unfree and unfair trials, in open mockery of the rule of law.

The world sees what happens in Belarus. We listen, worry and will not stay silent or passive in the face of any further violations of the universal human rights.

Repeatedly, the European Parliament of which I am Member has called on Belarus to release other political prisoners. EU targeted sanctions are in place after the fraudulent elections last year. Our hope, as neighbours, was that the situation in Belarus would turn for the better, for more of democracy, rule of law and a decent human rights situation including freedom for the human rights workers to do their job.

I sincerely hope that this ongoing case against Mr Bialiatski will not provide another disappointment to this vision of a free and prosperous Belarus within the European neighbourhood.

Dear Sir/Madam, I strongly and urgently plead with you to immediately release Mr Bialiatski from custody and remove any restrictions on his freedom of movement; and to release Mr Bialiatski from all charges against him.

Rest assured that I will follow the coming developments closely.

Sincerely yours,

Olle Schmidt
Member of the European Parliament
Liberal Party of Sweden / Folkpartiet