EU mission slams chargé d’affaires’ detention

September 7, BPN. The EU delegation to Belarus has criticized yesterday’s brief arrest of chargé d’affaires Evelina Schulz.

“This illegal detention of a diplomat is a serious breach of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations that guarantees the personal inviolability of diplomats, and undermines their security in Belarus,” the diplomatic mission told BPN.

“It is the second time that such an illegitimate detention of EU diplomatic staff takes place,” it noted.

Schulz shared the details of her arrest. She spoke with citizens in the lobby of the Minsk City Court, where a closed-door trial in the so-called anarchists’ case took place, and was detained while exiting the building.

“Immediately, and throughout the two hours of my detention, I made it clear that I have diplomatic immunity, showing both my diplomatic card as well as my diplomatic passport,” Schulz said.

At the police station, the diplomat was filmed and asked to sign the arrest report in Russian. Eventually, it was a Belarusian foreign ministry official who signed it.

The EU’s chargé affairs called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release and rehabilitate all political prisoners and stop the crackdown.

“We will continue stand in solidarity with the political prisoners, their families, friends and the people of Belarus in their demand for justice, the rule of law and democratic governance,” she said.

The Minsk City Court on September 6 imposed lengthy prison sentences on two human rights defenders and eight anarchist activists. The Viasna Human Rights Center’s coordinator Marfa Rabkova was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and its volunteer Andrej Čapiuk to six.