Belarusian rights advocate Kiślak appeals second asylum denial in Georgia

March 31, Pozirk. Belarusian human rights activist Raman Kiślak has submitted an appeal to the Tbilisi City Court after Georgia’s migration department deemed his refugee status application inadmissible, he has told Pozirk.

Kiślak, who has been contesting Georgia’s refusal to grant him political asylum, said recently amended procedures require applications for international protection to pass an initial admissibility stage, a process that took more than four months instead of the stipulated 10 days in his case.

Rights defender noted that he had been trying to file his application since last September but was unable to do so for weeks due to long queues and slow processing. Eventually, he was able to submit his application in person on October 13, after earlier attempts failed.

In his court complaint, Kiślak also cited new developments, including criminal cases against exiled Belarusian activists as well as proceedings linked to his alleged cooperation with the news agency Pozirk, which Belarusian authorities branded an extremist group during a crackdown on independent media.

Kiślak plans to take his case to the Tbilisi Court of Appeals and, after exhausting legal remedies in Georgia, bring it before the United Nations Human Rights Committee if his appeal is rejected.

If deported to Belarus, Kiślak—whose passport has expired—would almost certainly face politically-motivated persecution. Belarusian authorities accuse him of terrorism, high treason and conspiracy to seize power in connection with his human rights work. These charges carry the death penalty as the maximum sentence.

Last year, Georgia denied asylum to 22 Belarusians, including five minors, according to Pozirk’s analysis of its interior ministry’s statistics.

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