FIDH calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Ales Bialiatski
FIDH expresses its deepest concern following the
arrest today of Aliaksandr (Ales) Bialiatski, FIDH Vice-President and President
of Human Rights Center Viasna.
A group of people in plain clothes surrounded the office of HRC "Viasna"
in Minsk.
Members of HRC "Viasna" immediately left the office and locked the
door. They heard one of the plain-clothes individuals saying through his phone
that "Bialiatski [was] not [t]here".
At about 4.30 pm, Mr. Bialiatski was arrested on the street in the centre of Minsk by the police
representative of the Department of Financial Investigations.
At the time of writing, the police were in the process of conducting a search
of his home. It is reported that Aliaksandr Bialiatski will subsequently be
taken to HRC Viasna’s offices where police officers are waiting to conduct a
search.
Since April 2011, Ales Bialiatski has been the subject of a smear campaign
which has been broadcast on public radio and television channels, in which he
is presented as Belarus’
“Public Enemy Number 1”.
His arrest is within the scope of the wave of repression that followed the
presidential elections leading to a dramatic decline in human rights and civil
and political liberties in Belarus.
FIDH calls for the
immediate and unconditional release of its Vice-president Aliaksandr
Bialiatski.
For more information:
FIDH
report called "Restrictions to the political and civil rights of citizens
of Belarus after the 2010 presidential elections" : http://www.fidh.org/Restrictions-on...
See
also the film “Bitter Winter in Belarus”, produced by the FIDH that includes a
recent interview of Ales Bialiatski : http://www.fidh.org/Bitter-Winter-i...