Amnesty International calls Tsikhanouski, Babaryka, associates and bloggers prisoners of conscience

Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al says it con­sid­ers Siarhei Tsikhanous­ki and the eight men arrest­ed along­side him (Yauhen Raznichen­ka, Dzmit­ry Fur­manau, Uladz­imir Navu­mik, Viarhili Ushak, Ali­ak­san­dr Ara­novich, Siarhei Kalmyk­ou, Vasil Babrous­ki and Art­siom Sakau) as pris­on­ers of con­science, as they are detained sole­ly for peace­ful­ly exer­cis­ing their human rights. The author­i­ties must imme­di­ate­ly and uncon­di­tion­al­ly release them, AI’s state­ment said.

Like­wise, it believes that Vik­tar and Eduard Babary­ka are pris­on­ers of con­science, pros­e­cut­ed sole­ly for the peace­ful expres­sion of their polit­i­cal opin­ions.

Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al also con­demned the per­se­cu­tion of blog­gers and jour­nal­ists Siarhei Bahrou, Siarhei Latsin­s­ki, Ihar Losik, Uladz­imir Niarosn­ki, Siarhei Pia­trukhin, and Uladz­imir Tsy­hanovich. They are pris­on­ers of con­science and must be imme­di­ate­ly and uncon­di­tion­al­ly released, it said.

The state­ment stress­es that the grow­ing crack­down on the rights to free­dom of expres­sion, peace­ful assem­bly and asso­ci­a­tion in the con­text of the forth­com­ing elec­tion has exposed numer­ous oth­er human rights issues, includ­ing the dis­crim­i­na­tion of women which has, at times, man­i­fest­ed as explic­it misog­y­ny, wide­ly broad­cast in the main­stream state-con­trolled media.

“The author­i­ties must prompt­ly, thor­ough­ly, impar­tial­ly, effec­tive­ly and trans­par­ent­ly inves­ti­gate all reports of exces­sive use of force by law enforce­ment offi­cers, and of ill-treat­ment of detainees, and all alle­ga­tions of threats, assaults and abu­sive prac­tices,” it said.

Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al says there have also been mul­ti­ple reports of ill-treat­ment of those detained dur­ing peace­ful protests, cit­ing the cas­es of Dzia­n­is Urbanovich and Pavel Seviarynets.