Lukashenko regime declares Libereco “extremist”
The X account (formerly Twitter) of the German-Swiss human rights organisation Libereco – Partnership for Human Rights is "extremist" according to a new assessment by the Belarusian authorities.
On 2 September, a court in Minsk classified Libereco's account on the social media site X (formerly Twitter) as “extremist”. The Belarusian human rights centre Viasna made the case public on 4 September.
Libereco has been campaigning for the observance of human rights in Belarus since it was founded in 2009. “The latest action against our organisation shows that the Belarusian regime led by dictator Alexander Lukashenko is doing everything it can to silence its critics. It didn’t come unexpectedly; we anticipated it to happen sooner or later,” says Marco Fieber, Executive Director of Libereco in Germany.
He sees the recent step by the Belarusian regime as confirmation of Libereco’s many years of continuous work and emphasises: “We see the label as an honour. Of course, we are not intimidated by it. Furthermore, it motivates us to continue doing everything we can to support political prisoners, people affected by repression and all other people who are working for a democratic Belarus governed by the rule of law.”
Since the brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests in August 2020, the Lukashenko regime has repeatedly labelled independent media, civil society organisations and citizens’ initiatives as “extremists”. All of Libereco’s relevant Belarusian partner organisations have already been given this label, including Viasna, whose founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski has been in prison again since 2021.
Courts in Belarus do not act independently. Instead, the label serves as another tool for Belarusian authorities to repress critics in the country. In the outermost case, people who follow Libereco’s account, share its posts, or interact with it could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison for “promoting extremist activities”.
Therefore, Libereco advises all people in Belarus and those travelling there to unfollow Libereco on X and delete all shared and liked posts from it.
