Uladzimir Kazeka recognized as political prisoner

Joint statement of the Belarusian human rights community

19 June 2023

We, representatives of the human rights community, note with deep concern that the authorities use administrative prosecution to suppress freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media.

Some administrative detainees have their detention terms extended multiple times which is comparable to criminal punishment.

According to paragraph 3.1 of the Guidelines on the Definition of a Political Prisoner, adopted by the Belarusian human rights community at the III Human Rights Forum, deprivation of liberty (including administrative detention) for the peaceful exercise of freedoms guaranteed by international human rights law is the basis for recognizing a person as a political prisoner and demanding their immediate release.

These criteria apply fully to all persons administratively detained for exercising their civil rights and freedoms. Therefore, all persons subjected to administrative detention for exercising their internationally recognized rights and freedoms are political prisoners for the period of their isolation. Separate statements on the recognition of some of them as such are intended to draw special attention to specific cases of the most severe punishment for the exercise of their rights and freedoms.

For example, Uladizmir Kazeka was detained on 9 May 2023 and repeatedly punished with administrative detention under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences for the distribution of extremist materials. He remains in a temporary detention facility until now.

The practice of imposing several administrative detention penalties in a row has been used by the Belarusian authorities for politically motivated pressure in the past.

We, representatives of Belarusian human rights organizations, protest against the political persecution and detention of Uladzimir Kazeka and demand

• The cancellation of the court decisions against the political prisoner and his immediate release;
• An end to the repression of dissidents and peaceful assembly participants;
• The release of all those administratively detained for exercising their civil rights and freedoms;
• The immediate release of all political prisoners and an end to political repression against the population.

Viasna Human Rights Center;

Legal Initiative;

Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House;

Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;

Belarusian Helsinki Committee;

Human Constanta;

Lawtrend;

Belarusian Association of Journalists.