Mr. President,
Mr. Prosecutor General,

We, the undersigned members and partners of the Human Rights House Network, are deeply concerned about the continued detention of Ales BIaliatski and the significant deterioration of his detention conditions. Ales Bialiatski is the head of the Human Rights Centre “Viasna” in Belarus, Vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and is one of the founders of the Belarusian Human Rights House in Vilnius (Lithuania).

According to the information received form our partners, Ales Bialiatski’s rights to receive visitors and food parcels have been severely restricted.

The consequence of these and other measures taken against him during his imprisonment is a serious deterioration in Ales Bialiatski’s health.

We would like to note that this latest deterioration of detention conditions of Ales Biliatski took place just after he turned 50 years old. He received greetings and congratulations from human rights defenders all over the world, as well as from the international community, including European Union Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle, all calling for his immediate release.

We consider the aforementioned confinement measures as additional retribution against Ales Bialiatski due to his legitimate human rights work. We also see a link between the international attention he received for his birthday and these measures.

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