17 Feb 11 | Index Index, minipost
Thursday 17 February saw the beginning of the hearing against Vasil Parkiankou. The trial, which is being held in Minsk, has been described by an opposition activist as a mere “show trial”. Parkiankou is accused of smashing the windows of a government building in the course of a demonstration in December. This is a “public order offence”. He was protesting against vote rigging in the presidential election. Human rights organisation Viasna have said that more than 40 opposition members will be tried. They face up to 15 years of imprisonment.
This Saturday there will be a solidarity protest outside the Belarusian Embassy in London.
17 Feb 11 | Events
This Saturday, 19 February at 2pm, there will be a protest organised by the Belarus Committee outside the Belarusian Embassy, 6 Kensington Court, London (you can see it on a map here). The protest is to raise awareness of the prisoners of conscience detained by President Lukashenko since the rigged election in December.
Many of those detained have little access to justice and there are serious reports of ill-treatment. Of those detained many are close friends and associates of the Belarus Free Theatre. Please join us to send a clear signal to the Belarusian authorities that the world is watching.
The Belarus Committee is a group of NGOs including Index on Censorship, English PEN, PEN International, Amnesty, Article 19, human rights firm H20 Lawand individuals including Sir Tom Stoppard, with patrons Mikhail Gorbachev and Vaclav Havel, established in solidarity with all the victims of President Lukashenko’s regime, especially the prisoners currently detained by the secret police. The first trial of the prisoners begins on 17 February.
Belarus is Europe’s last dictatorship. The Presidential elections last December were described by the OSCE as “seriously flawed”, with the count in half of the polling districts “bad or very bad”. During an post-election rally in Independence Square in Minsk the authorities arrested members of the country’s political opposition and civil society activists. Over 600 people were arrested that evening including Natalia Koliada from the Belarus Free Theatre and Index on Censorship award nominee Natalia Radzina. Currently, 33 prisoners are still kept in custody, and journalist Irina Khalip — the wife of presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov — and presidential candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu are both under punitive house arrest. They face up to 15 years in prison for orchestrating “mass disorder”.
For more information, contact Michael Harris
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7974 838 468
Heather McGill
[email protected]
+44 (0) 77 960 5261
www.zoneofsilence.org
05 Feb 11 | News and features
It has been reported that an “accredited” journalist for Wikileaks, Israel Shamir, met with Uladzimri Makei, the Head of the Presidential administration in Belarus. Subsequently, it was reported in the Belarus Telegraf that a state newspaper would be publishing documents about the Belarusian opposition.
Wikileaks has always maintained it takes care to ensure that names of political activists are redacted from cables before publication on its website. Index on Censorship is concerned that some of the Wikileaks cables relating to Belarus that have not appeared on the main Wikileaks website are now in the public domain.
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02 Feb 11 | Index Index, minipost
The KGB have released journalists Irina Khalip and Charter 97’s Natalia Radzina but have placed serious restrictions on their movement and activities. Radina has been forced to leave Minsk to the western town of Kobrin and remain there until her case is investigated further, while Khalip — who is married to former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov — is under house arrest and is not allowed to use the phone or access the internet. The two were arrested on December 19 following post-election protests.
