The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for January 2018

31.01.2018 Supreme Court confirms fourth death sentence in 2017

Another man was sentenced to death in the fall of 2017, in addition to the three persons earlier convicted during the year, Valery Kalinkovich, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court, said at a press conference in Minsk today.

29.01.2018 Leading Chechnya Rights Defender Framed for Drug Possession

Leading Chechen human rights defender Oyub Titiev is currently being held by Federal authorities in Chechnya.

26.01.2018 Blocking of Charter-97 further attack on freedom of speech in Belarus, HRDs say

The Ministry of Information has announced official reasons for its decision to restrict access to the charter97.org website, saying the resource was spreading information that could harm the national interests of Belarus, as well as violating the Law on Mass Events and publishing materials that were recognized as extremist.

24.01.2018 EU Urges Belarus To Spare Two On Death Row

The European Union has sharply criticized Belarus for sentencing two men to death, and repeated its call for President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's government to abolish capital punishment.

24.01.2018 Report on the registration of candidates for deputies of local councils

The election commissions did not create significant obstacles to the registration of nomination groups, with almost all groups having been registered. It should be noted that the election authorities registered all the groups formed to nominate members of political parties.

23.01.2018 REP leader Fiadynich: There is flagrant and blatant interference in trade union’s internal affairs

The Trade Union of Radio and Electronic Industry (REP) has issued a statement to condemn numerous interrogations of its activists recently conducted by the Investigative Committee.

22.01.2018 Council of Europe: 'Death is no justice'

"Two new death verdicts handed on 20 January by the Minsk City Court are a very disturbing development. We reiterate our call on the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium on capital punishment as the first step to its abolition," Spokesperson of the Council of Europe's Secretary General said today.

22.01.2018 Denying registration to opposition candidates aims at securing desired turnout

Preventing a large number of candidates from the opposition to run in the local elections is the most glaring peculiarity of the phase of registration of candidates, which ended on January 18. Cases of denying registration on formal grounds have been reported by both independent observers and representatives of political parties from different regions of the country. Analysts believe the move by local authorities is a logical continuation of measures to ensure the desired voter turnout.

22.01.2018 Court sends two to death after retrial

The Minsk City Court has sentenced two persons to death after a retrial on January 20. Viachaslau Sukharka and Aliaksandr Zhylnikau were found guilty of murdering three people in December 2015. One more defendant in the case, Alina Shulhanava, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

18.01.2018 Situation with Freedom of Speech in Belarus Reported as Highly Critical in 2017

There were registered more conflicts between the Belarusian official authorities and journalists in 2017 than during the preceding three years taken together. The statistics were presented by the BAJ representatives during a press-conference in Minsk on January 16, 2018.

18.01.2018 Belarus remains among "not free" countries in Freedom House’s report

Freedom House, a Washington-based international non-governmental organization, has ranked Belarus "not free" in its Freedom in the World Survey 2018.

17.01.2018 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: 2017. Analytical Review

The year was marked by a significant deterioration in the overall situation of human rights in the country as compared to the previous period of so-called ‘soft practices’, which began in August 2015 and ended with the start of mass protests in February 2017; the latter were in many ways provoked by the use of Presidential Decree number 3.

15.01.2018 Amnesty International: 2 men in Belarus at risk of imminent execution

The death sentences of Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoy were upheld by the Supreme Court of Belarus on 20 December 2017. The two men were convicted and sentenced to death by the Mahiliou Regional Court, in eastern Belarus, on 21 July 2017. In the likely event that their appeal for clemency is rejected by the President, both men will be at risk of imminent execution.

12.01.2018 Verdict in Andrei Bialiauski’s case: 1 year of home detention

The court of Leninski district of Minsk has sentenced Andrei Bialiauski, former defendant in the ‘White Legion case’, to 1 year of conditional restraint of liberty (home detention) on charges of possessing an AK-47 cartridge.

11.01.2018 Chechnya: immediately release human rights defender Oyub Titiev

(10 January 2018) We, members of the Civic Solidarity Platform (CSP), are deeply concerned at reports of the arrest of Oyub Titiev, head of Human Rights Center Memorial’s Grozny office in Chechnya on highly dubious narcotics charges. We call for his immediate and unconditional release and dropping of all charges.