Joint statement in the run-up to the verdict in the Viasna case

On March 3, 2023, the Lenin­sky Dis­trict Court in Min­sk will rule on the polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed case against the head of Vias­na and Nobel Peace Prize lau­re­ate Ales Biali­ats­ki, his deputy and FIDH Vice-Pres­i­dent Valiantsin Ste­fanovic, and Viasna’s lawyer Uladz­imir Labkovich. After over a month of unfair tri­al and more than a year and a half of arbi­trary deten­tion, hope for jus­tice is slim.

On Feb­ru­ary 9, 2023, Pros­e­cu­tor Ali­ak­san­dr Karol request­ed the court to sen­tence Ales Biali­ats­ki to 12 years’ impris­on­ment, Valiantsin Ste­fanovic to 11 years and Uladz­imir Labkovich to 9 years. Zmitser Salauy­ou, anoth­er Viasna’s mem­ber and defen­dant in this case, who is tried in absen­tia, faces 10 years’ impris­on­ment. The pros­e­cu­tor fur­ther demand­ed a fine of 185,000 Belaru­sian rubles (approx­i­mate­ly 68,000 Euros) to be imposed on each of the defen­dants.

Lawless authorities have played a parody of justice against human rights defenders

“The posi­tion of the Pros­e­cu­tor’s Office in the case of our friends and col­leagues is the epit­o­me of law­less­ness by the Belaru­sian author­i­ties. Dra­con­ian prison terms and fines, even by the abysmal stan­dards of the pro­found­ly com­pro­mised Belaru­sian judi­cia­ry, is an ordeal for the defen­dants and their fam­i­lies” said Pavel Sapel­ka, act­ing mem­ber of the Vias­na board. “These shame­ful repres­sive prac­tices against human rights defend­ers require deci­sive actions by key inter­na­tion­al actors” he added.

Biali­ats­ki, Ste­fanovic and Labkovich have been arbi­trar­i­ly detained since July 14, 2021, as part of a broad­er crack­down on Belaru­sian civ­il soci­ety fol­low­ing the high­ly con­test­ed August 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tions. They were ini­tial­ly detained and held for 14 months on bogus charges of «tax eva­sion” (Part 2 of Art. 243 of the Belarus Crim­i­nal Code), but they are now on tri­al on trumped-up charges of “smug­gling” (Arti­cle 228.4 of the same Code) and “financ­ing of group actions gross­ly vio­lat­ing pub­lic order” (Arti­cle 342.2 of the same Code). These new charges were only filed against them in Sep­tem­ber 2022, leav­ing lit­tle time for the defen­dants and their lawyers to pre­pare a new defence strat­e­gy.

Over 10 years in jail are expected in retribution for rightful human right work by the defendants

Biali­ats­ki, Ste­fanovic and Labkovich are pros­e­cut­ed in reprisal for car­ry­ing out legit­i­mate human rights work. Pros­e­cu­tion deemed ille­gal such activ­i­ties as: assist­ing arbi­trar­i­ly detained par­tic­i­pants in peace­ful protests, pay­ing lawyers’ fees, organ­is­ing inde­pen­dent elec­tion mon­i­tor­ing, and con­tin­u­ing Viasna’s activ­i­ties after its for­mal liq­ui­da­tion.

The tri­al of Biali­ats­ki, Ste­fanovic and Labkovich, as well as the pre­ced­ing inves­ti­ga­tion peri­od, were marred with mul­ti­ple vio­la­tions of human rights and fair tri­al stan­dards: in the court­room, the three defen­dants were hand­cuffed and held in a cage; the case mate­ri­als and the hear­ings were in Russ­ian, while the first lan­guage of the defen­dants in which they com­mu­ni­cate is Belaru­sian; the defen­dants were not giv­en suf­fi­cient time to famil­iarise them­selves with all the case file; and no inde­pen­dent media or inde­pen­dent observers were allowed into the court­room, to name just a few.

The sig­na­to­ry organ­i­sa­tions strong­ly con­demn once again the crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of Ales Biali­ats­ki, Valiantsin Ste­fanovic and Uladz­imir Labkovich and reit­er­ate their call to the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to release them imme­di­ate­ly and uncon­di­tion­al­ly, to drop all charges against them, and to end the judi­cial harass­ment against all human rights defend­ers in the coun­try. 

Sig­na­to­ries:

1. ACAT Suisse

2. Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al

3. ARTICLE 19

4. The Barys Zvozskau Belaru­sian Human Rights House

5. Cam­pax

6. Civ­il Rights Defend­ers

7. Euro­pean Plat­form for Demo­c­ra­t­ic Elec­tions (EPDE)

8. FIDH (Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion for Human Rights), with­in the frame­work of the Obser­va­to­ry for the Pro­tec­tion of Human Rights Defend­ers

9. Free­dom House

10. Front Line Defend­ers

11. Helsin­ki Foun­da­tion for Human Rights

12. Human Rights House Foun­da­tion

13. Human Rights Watch

14. The Inter­na­tion­al Bar Association’s Human Rights Insti­tute (IBAHRI)

15. Libere­co — Part­ner­ship for Human Rights

16. Nether­lands Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee

17. Nor­we­gian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee

18. Öst­grup­pen — Swedish ini­tia­tive for Democ­ra­cies and human rights

19. Right Liveli­hood

20. World Organ­i­sa­tion Against Tor­ture (OMCT), with­in the frame­work of the Obser­va­to­ry for the Pro­tec­tion of Human Rights Defend­ers

21. Peo­ple in Need