Georgia signs agreement with Belarusian KGB. Political migrants have reason to fret?
The State Security Committee of Belarus (KGB) and the State Security Service of Georgia signed a cooperation agreement; its text was published by the Belarusian authorities on Pravo.by on August 13 (PDF).
Within the framework of this agreement, the parties reportedly plan to exchange information in the field of state security, to provide assistance in solving crimes, in particular those against the constitutional order.
The current Georgian authorities are actively cooperating with the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. At the same time, many Belarusians who had to flee their native country in fear of being persecuted are now staying in Georgia. Will the fact of signing the agreement affect them?
When reached by Belsat.eu, human rights activist Raman Kislyak expressed cautious optimism; according to him, the Belarusian security services conclude such framework agreements with many countries.
“There is no cause for panic, because the agreement contains a regulation allowing not to comply with the cooperation requests in cases when human rights are at stake. Georgian human rights activists have confirmed that they are unaware of any cases of Georgia’s extraditing Belarusian citizens. I hope that even now Georgia is not going to deliver Belarusians on the back of fabricated political cases,” Raman Kislyak believes.
