Relatives of Political Prisoners against Admission of Belarus to UN Council on Human Rights

Source: www.charter97.org

The relatives of the Belarusian political prisoners Volha Kazulina, Yuliya Kazulina, Viktar Sadouski, Yauheniya Astreika, Valery Dranchuk, Valiantsina Statkevich, Maryia Finkevich forwarded a written appeal to the international public calling against admission of Belarus to the UN Council on Human Rights.

’We are deeply astonished by of the Belarusian government intentions to nominate Belarus for membership in the newly summoned UN Council on Human Rights. There are political prisoners in Belarus. Candidate for the Belarusian presidency of 2006, leader of Belarusian Social Democratic Party Hramada Aliaksandr Kazulin, political figures Andrei Klimau, Mikalai Statkevich, leaders of the youth movement Young Front Pavel Seviarynets, Artur Finkevich, Zmitser Dashkevich, human rights defender Katsiaryna Sadouskaya, youth activist Anton Kishkurna, businessmen Yury Liavonau, Mikalai Autukhovich are kept in custody. Leader of the public initiative Partnership Mikalai Astreika serves his second year of sentence,’ the undersigned point out in their letter.

They state that there is no independent judicial system in Belarus; all bodies of the judicial power are under direct control of the executive power. Relatives of the political prisoners point out that the defendants were deprived of the right for fair trial by independent unbiased court and were sentenced for political reasons. The majority of trials of those people were closed for the public.