The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT) and Viasna Human Rights Center issued a joint statement on the third anniversary of the detention of Viasna members [lawyer] Uladzimir Labkovich, Ales Bialiatski, and Valiantsin Stefanovic. Organizations once again called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release imprisoned human rights defenders in Belarus.
The Observatory and Viasna are particularly alarmed about the appalling conditions in which Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich are being held. Recently, it became known that Ales Bialiatski is systematically denied contact with his relatives, who only sporadically receive short letters from him. Likewise, Ales apparently does not receive letters and parcels from outside, including parcels with medical supplies, which the prison administration refuses to accept on his behalf. In November 2023, Ales was placed in a cell-type space (PKT) for approximately six months, from which he was released in April or May 2024, and is now forced to do exhausting work in a woodworking factory. His state of health remains unknown.
2/5 On March 3, 2023, the 3 #HumanRights defenders were heavily sentenced:
– Ales #Bialiatski: 10 years in prison
– Valiantsin #Stefanovic : 9 years in prison
– Uladzimir #Labkovich : 7 years in prison— The Observatory (@OBS_defenders) March 3, 2024
This is congruent with the findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus. In her latest report published in May 2024, she stated that “inmates convicted on politically motivated charges reportedly wear a special yellow mark, have arbitrary restrictions on communication with families and lawyers imposed on them, are frequently transferred to ‘punitive isolation cells’ (SHIZO) and ‘cell-type spaces’ (PKT), notorious for inhuman detention conditions, where they find themselves in solitary confinement and incommunicado detention”, as “disciplinary sanctions for petty and far-fetched transgressions of penitentiary rules”.
The statement says that the Observatory and Viasna strongly condemn the unlawful imprisonment of Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, and urge the Belarusian authorities to quash their sentences and to immediately and unconditionally release them.
