The event aroused great interest among participants, including representatives of several national delegations to the UN. The participants watched a short film about Ales Bialiatski. Later, vice-chairman of “Viasna” Valentin Stefanovich and Director of the Belarusian Human Rights House in Vilnius Anna Gerasimova made a speech.
In their addresses made after the presentations, the representatives of EU countries unanimously highlighted the political motivation of the criminal case of prominent human rights defender and called upon the Belarusian authorities to immediately release Mr. Bialiatski.
The floor was taken by the head of EU mission to the Council by the UN Human Rights Dimitris Iliopoulos, who noted in particular that the prosecution of a well-known in Belarus and abroad human rights defender Ales Bialiatski is nothing but a political persecution, and urged official Minsk for immediate release of human rights defender, as well as all political prisoners in Belarus. His position was supported by members of national delegations of a number of EU countries: Poland, Hungary and Germany. The representative of the international human rights organization Amnesty International noted that Ales Bialiatski is a prisoner of conscience, and urged to stop harassment of Belarusian human rights defenders.
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