EU condemns political trials in Belarus

January 18, BPN. “The European Union will continue to support all the brave women and men striving for a free, democratic and independent Belarus,” the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said in a statement on the start of new political trials in Minsk, issued on January 17.

Borrell stated that “trials in absentia against leaders of the democratic opposition, Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja and Pavieł Łatuška, and against three other members of the Coordination Council” began yesterday, demonstrating that the regime continues to misuse the judiciary for political purposes.

“They are facing fabricated charges of treason, extremism, conspiracy and incitement to hatred and are risking up to 20 years of prison just for trying to exercise their democratic rights,” he added. “The start of these trials comes after similar steps by the regime against Nobel prize winner Aleś Bialacki last week and a journalist and member of the board of independent Union of Poles of Belarus, Andrzej Poczobut.”

Political reprisals have reached an unprecedented level in the republic, the statement reads: “There are now more than 1,440 political prisoners. Arbitrary legislation deprives citizens of fundamental rights, including a new law making it possible to deprive Belarusians living abroad of their citizenship.”

“The EU condemns this brutal repression and the politically motivated trials aimed at silencing any independent voices and closing all remaining space for democratic debate,” Borrell said.