Libereco welcomes the release of Belarussian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski

23. June 2014 – Release of Ales Bialiastki – A special amnesty for all political prisoners must follow

Libereco welcomes the release of Belarussian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski on 21st June 2014 under an amnesty law, under which more than 2700 people have been released from prison.

Lars Bünger, Chairman of Libereco – Partnership for Human Rights stated:
„We are delighted to learn of the release of Ales on whose behalf we have worked for almost 3 years. Ales was imprisoned for more than 1000 days because of his decades-long activism on behalf of others, especially victims of human rights violations. Now we hope that he will be able to make a good recovery from his term in prison, so that he can continue to devote his efforts to this important human rights work. We want to thank the many supporters worldwide who worked hard for the release of Ales, in particular our partner organisations Amnesty International, Ostgruppen and Norwegian Helsinki Committee, as well as the members of parliament Marek Migalski, Marieluise Beck and Katrin-Göring Eckardt. The release of Ales shows how meaningful and vitally important are our joint efforts for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus.“

Libereco further calls on the Belarusian president to release the remaining 7 political prisoners in Belarus under a special amnesty. These prisoners are Ihar Alienevich, Mikalai Dziadok, Eduard Lobau, Vasil Parfiankou, Artsiom Prakapenka, Mikalai Statkevich and Yauhen Vaskovich. More than 3200 supporters signed an online petition calling for a special amnesty for all political prisoners during the ice hockey world championship in Belarus in May 2014. All these signatures have been sent to the Belarusian president and the Belarusian embassies in Geneva and Berlin.