Dozens Nobel Prize winners urge EU to seek release of Belarusian political prisoners

March 21, Pozirk. A total of 27 Nobel Prize winners urged the European Union governments “to take immediate measures to stop the brutal repression in Belarus,” The Independent reported, citing their open letter.

“Poland, as a neighboring country to Belarus, has unique and effective leverage for such action,” says the letter posted by the Belarusian political scientist Dźmitryj Bałkuniec on his website. Warsaw could suspend regular rail freight shipments from Russia and China to the EU via Belarus, it suggested.

“The commercial interests that European countries have cannot outweigh the issues of their national security and their duty to save innocent people being victimized in Belarus, and the protection of the rights of not only Belarusians, but also national minorities who are subjected to severe discrimination,” the letter said.

The Nobel Prize winners also called for the immediate release of political prisoners in Belarus, including the jailed Belarusian Peace Nobel Prize winner Aleś Bialacki.

“In recent decades, Europe has not seen a humanitarian catastrophe related to political repression on such a per capita scale as in Belarus,” the signatories stressed. Over the past four years, more than 50,000 people faced politically-motivated persecution in Belarus, while thousands have been tortured behind bars, they noted.

Belarusian writer Śviatłana Aleksijevič, Ukrainian human rights defender Oleksandra Matviichuk, former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov signed the letter among others.