On Monday, the Belarusian human rights community issued a joint statement on their recognising another twelve persons as political prisoners, HRC Viasna reports.
The names of Iryna Radzkova, Mikita Kuntysh, Valery Kazey, Artsyom Hryb, Syarhei Klyuchanski, Hayane Akhtsiyan, Dzmitry Horbach, Viktoryia Hancharova, Ihar Pazdnyakou, Alena Yahorychava, Anastasiya Patsekhina and Alyaksandr Shyshko have been added to the list of prisoners of conscience.
The above mentioned persons were charged or convicted under infamous Article 342 of the Criminal Code (‘group actions grossly violating public order’). Five human rights watchdogs consider their persecution and imprisonment to be politically motivated, as they are related to the exercise of peaceful assembly.
“The post-election protests were spontaneous, self-organized, and were caused by distrust of the results of the August 9 presidential election, which was marred by numerous violations and fraud, and was not recognized by the international community as democratic, fair and free. The meetings were peaceful and did not pose a threat to national or public security. Despite this, the demonstrators were attacked by special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who used disproportionate violence, riot gear and non-lethal weapons. For the first time in the history of Belarus, rubber bullets and water cannons were used against peaceful demonstrators. A particularly large amount of damage was inflicted by the use of stun grenades,” the statement reads.
The human rights defenders called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release all political prisoners, as well as other individuals detained in connection with their exercise of freedom of peaceful assembly in the post-election period, and stop political repression in the country.
As of December 6, there are 907 political prisoners in Belarus.
belsat.eu, following spring96.org
