US embassy calls for release of Statkievič, other political prisoners

May 12, BPN. US Сhargé d’Affaires Ruben Harutunian has met with Maryna Adamovič, the wife of jailed politician Mikałaj Statkievič.

“We call for the release of Mikałaj and 1,500 other political prisoners in Belarus!” the US embassy in Minsk has tweeted following the meeting.

On February 1, the UN Human Rights Committee confirmed that it had received Statkievič’s appeal against violations of his rights. About a month later, authorities would not allow the politician’s lawyer to see him citing a missing visit request.

On May 5, the Swiss-German human rights group Libereco presented a report on politically-motivated persecution in Belarus. It cites the March report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights describing some of the human rights violations in the country as possible crimes against humanity.

Police arrested the leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) in Minsk in late May 2020. In December 2021, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly staging “mass riots.” A year later, the interior ministry added his name to the register of persons involved in extremist activities.

Prison authorities have repeatedly placed the politician in a punishment cell.

Belarusian human rights groups say his persecution is politically motivated.

As of May 12, human rights defenders identified at least 1,484 political prisoners, but their real number is said to be much higher. Opposition leader Śviatlana Cichanoŭskaja, speaking at an ongoing forum in Warsaw, estimated it at 5,000.