On 25 January German Member of Parliament Marina Schuster told a session of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) that former Belarus presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov is close to death after being tortured in jail.

“He may die”
Schuster told the Assembly that there is now a “serious risk he may die”, using information from a press conference held on the same day in Minsk by Sannikov’s wife Irina Khalip.

Iryna Khalip, below, who visited her jailed husband on January 20, said in a statement on January 25 that Sannikov looked like “a man who had lived at least 10 years in Stalin’s camps.”

It was her first permitted visit since August 2011. In an emotional meeting in the presence of KGB officers, Sannikov used a pre-arranged code to express his fear of never seeing his family again. He added that the physical and psychological torture was constant – not daily, but hourly.

Khalip said that Sannikov was extremely frail, and even though the KGB stated there would be reprisals for reporting details of her visit, she went public at a press conference as she believes her husband will die in jail without international action. There are also fears that Sannikov’s family may be targeted.

Release and rehabilitate political prisoners
At the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, below, delegates passed a strong draft opinion written by rapporteur Andres Herkel. All political groups backed the opinion that called for:

– the Belarusian authorities to release and rehabilitate all political prisoners, and;
 – all member states of the Council of Europe to join the sanctions imposed by the European Union against Belarusian officials responsible for serious human rights violations.

Index on Censorship intends writing to Council of Europe member states to urge them to join the European Union sanctions, and remind Belarus of its international obligations, alongside member states such as Norway who have already done so.

This week Christian Democrats of Norway urged the government of their country to step up pressure on Lukashenka.

Authoritarians back authoritarians
“Whilst there was almost unanimous support for the strong statement of Council of Europe on Belarus, some former post-Soviet countries mindful of their own domestic human rights record attempted to water it down. An Armenian delegate described the debate as ‘hypocritical’ whilst their foe Azerbaijan remained within the Council of Europe”, Michael Harris from Index on Censorship reported.

According to him, later Russian delegates stood up one by one to provoke the assembled parliamentarians with apologia for Lukashenko’s regime. Svetlana Goryacheva a Russian delegate from the Socialist Group spread Belarusian government propaganda about jailed human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, stating incorrectly he had received $300 million personally in donations from the West, adding that Western European countries and the United States were “war-mongerers”.

Another Russian delegate, Leonid Slutsky, said of the widespread concern for Bialiatski, “[They] are sending a signal that if you are a human rights defender you can evade taxes.” Slutsky failed to mention that Bialiatski was sentenced under Belarus’s penal code, which makes any form of donations to domestic NGOs a criminal offence.

Lithuanian EPP delegate Emanuelis Zingeris said the ‘anti-democratic statements’ of the Eurasian states were not appropriate for Strasbourg. Fellow Lithuanian delegate Egidijus Varekis said the word “President” should be removed from in front of Lukashenka’s name in the opinion and replaced with “dictator”.

Belarus criticizes the resolution
Andres Herkel’s report which formed the resolution included Index on Censorship’s successful campaign with Free Belarus Now against banks that sold Belarusian government bonds.

The resolution finally passed 111 votes with 10 against and 6 abstentions; and the recommendations of the committee were passed by 119 votes, 10 against and 3 abstentions. It is thought the majority of the 10 against were from the Russian delegation.

The resolution was strongly criticised by Belarusian authorities.

“The resolution can be called an ordinary routine document that is based on questionable materials and false accusations taken from Internet”, comment one day later Andrei Savinykh, the press secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Background information
The leading Belarusian opposition politician and former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov was a candidate in the 2010 Belarus presidential ‘election’, officially finishing second behind Lukashenka.

Sannikov, the leader of European Belarus, was detained after protests against the disputed re-election of Aliaksandr Lukashenko on 19 December last year and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on charges of organizing mass disturbances.

The resolution adopted by Council of Europe supports the European Union “regime of targeted sanctions until the release and full rehabilitation of all political prisoners, and urge the Belarusian authorities to end the crackdown on political opponents”.

According to the resolution, PACE is deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation of human rights and civil and political liberties in Belarus and condemns the harassment of dissidents.

The resolution calls on the EU countries to maintain and consider sanctions against Belarus, “especially against state-owned enterprises connected with President Lukashenka and other senior officials” and continue to support NGOs.

The resolution offers PACE to intensify cooperation with representatives of non-governmental organizations, independent media, political opposition and independent trade unions. It also recommends to put on hold the activities involving high-level contacts with the Belarusian authorities and calls not to lift the suspension of the special guest status for the Parliament of Belarus until imposing a moratorium on the execution of the death penalty in Belarus and demonstrating progress in democracy.

Related articles:

Former Belarusian presidential candidate sentenced to 5 years

Belarus: Political detainees facing years of prison

“Justice” in Belarus: lawyers afraid to defend political prisoners

Show case: Belarusian political prisoners ‘released’

Belarus: 4 out of 10 candidates for presidential elections are in custody

Election aftermath in Belarus: 600 arrested, hundreds injured

Letters of concern:

Call for immediate release and rehabilitation of Ales Bialiastki

Joint concern about new restrictions on civil society in Belarus