Help release Viasna human rights defenders!

Amnesty International has launched an urgent action calling to write to the Belarusian authorities, demanding the immediate release of Viasna leaders, Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovich, as well as Uladzimir Labkovich and his partner Nina Labkovich.

They were arrested on 14 July alongside others during the raids carried out by law enforcement officers on the offices of at least a dozen major Belarusian civil society and human rights organizations and opposition groups, as well the homes of civil society leaders. These raids and arbitrary arrests are just another instance of the crackdown against human rights defenders, civil society organizations and independent media that has been going on since the widely disputed presidential election in August 2020, when thousands of Belarusians took to the streets in mostly peaceful protests.

"They have committed no recognizable criminal offence and are being prosecuted in retaliation for their human rights work," says a press-release urging the Belarusian government to ensure the immediate release of the four activists.