Brussels, 23/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton and Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Stefan Füle issued a joint call on Wednesday 23 November for Belarus “to immediately and unconditionally release Ales Byalyatski”, President of the Human Rights Centre Viasna and to “drop the charges” against him and against his deputy Valyantsin Stefanovich.
Ashton and Füle said the case against Byalyatski, who had been charged with tax fraud, is politically motivated. They said the ongoing trial is “a politically motivated pretext to target his important work to the benefit of victims of repression”. “The ongoing trial is a highly visible and symbolic manifestation of the crackdown on civil society in Belarus since the 19 December 2010 presidential elections”, they added.
Those who took part in the Sakharov Conference at the European Parliament also gave their support to Byalyatski. “Ales is my friend. He is someone who deserves the greatest respect. My heart is bleeding, everyone in this lecture theatre is with him. We fear that the sentence may be very severe”, Zhanna Litvina, head of the Belarus Association of Journalists told EUROPE.
The Belarus prosecutor's office has called for Byalyatski to be sentenced to five years in prison. The authorities claim that he had failed to declare income from abroad, though he ought to have done. The human rights activist rejects fraud claims, arguing the money was sent by foreign NGOs to fund the work of Viasna and so could not be considered to be personal income.
The previous day, at a meeting with families and friends of imprisoned Belarusian political activists, Füle stressed the EU's grave concern over the continuing widespread intimidation and harassment of Belarusian civil society and the political opposition and renewed his support for those who are working for democracy, rights and freedoms. He repeated the EU's call for the “immediate and unconditional release and the rehabilitation of all political prisoners” and expressed the deep concern of the EU on torture and maltreatment in Belarusian gaols. (CG/transl.rt)