Measures for release of political prisoners considered at OSCE conference

On 28 September, Warsaw hosted a side-event “Ales Bialiatski: a symbolic case of the restrictions to political and civil rights in Belarus after the 2010 presidential elections” as part of the OSCE Human Dimension Conference, arranged by a coalition of a number of human rights organizations: the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the World Organization against Torture (OMCT), Amnesty International, the Human Rights House Network, Human Rights Watch, Front Line, the International Federation for Human Rights and the Human Rights Center “Viasna”.

Valiantsin Stefanovich, Viasna’s deputy chair, told about the repression following the 2010 presidential election, paying especial attention to the criminal case of Ales Bialiatski.

Andrei Bastunets, deputy chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, specified on the repressions used against independent journalists, as well as the situation with independent media in Belarus after the 2010 election.

The issue of political prisoners in Belarus was covered by former prisoner of conscience Uladzimir Kobets, who reported on the grave situation with Andrei Sannikau and Zmitser Dashkevich.