Alexander Lukashenko leading ‘vicious operation to eviscerate critical voices’ and civil society, rights groups warn
Aleysa Ivanova wakes up each morning wondering when the knock on her door will come.
“You understand you can be next. Every day I wake up, I think ‘maybe it’ll be tomorrow, maybe today. Maybe they’ll come for me this evening’,” said Ivanova (not her real name).
Continue reading...Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has arrived in Poland under diplomatic protection after seeking help in Japanese airport
A Belarusian sprinter who took refuge in the Polish embassy to avoid being bundled on a plane back to Minsk has spoken out about her dramatic experience, telling Belarusians “not to be afraid and, if they’re under pressure, speak out”.
In her first press conference from Poland, where she arrived under diplomatic protection this week, the Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said she had decided not to return to Belarus after her grandmother told her by telephone that she had been slammed on television as a traitor and called “mentally ill” for criticising her coaches’ “negligence”.
Continue reading...Analysis: Krystsina Tsimanouskaya stunned, but Lukashenko regime’s brutal suppression of all criticism is proving pervasive
The saga of the sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has shown how the Belarusian government’s brutal suppression of all criticism has politicised the lives and actions of even those hesitant to openly oppose the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko.
“I am stunned that this situation has become a political scandal,” Tsimanouskaya said during a press-conference in Warsaw, where she arrived from Tokyo via Vienna on Wednesday. “This situation was only about sport … all that I wanted was for people to take responsibility.”
Continue reading...Athlete is expected to head to Poland later after seeking protection at its embassy amid fears she would be punished if she returned home
Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has left Japan on a Vienna-bound plane after she refused to fly home earlier this week.
The 24-year-old, who had sought refuge at the Polish embassy in Tokyo, had been expected to take a flight direct to Warsaw but switched at the last minute, an airport official told reporters.
Continue reading...Police open murder investigation after activist discovered in park after failing to return from a run
The head of a Kyiv-based non-profit organisation that helps Belarusians fleeing persecution has been found dead in a park in the Ukrainian capital, police have said, raising suspicion that he may have been murdered.
Vitaly Shishov, the head of Belarusian House in Ukraine (BDU), was reported missing by his partner on Monday after he failed to return from a run and could not be reached on his mobile phone.
Continue reading...Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has not directly criticised her government but her parents warned her not to return
Just two years ago, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was greeted by smiling Belarusian athletics and academic officials as she brandished a gold medal from the 2019 Summer Universiade, the young star’s greatest victory for her native Belarus yet.
Now that same bureaucracy is threatening to tear her life apart, as her coach and a delegation official warned a crying Tsimanouskaya on leaked audio that she was “caught in a spider’s web” and suggested that cases of “excessive pride” often lead to suicide.
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Haiti to Pakistan
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China
Continue reading...The Belarusian opposition on Friday said that detained activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich was coerced to appear in a video broadcast on state TV.
The 26-year-old was interviewed on Thursday night on the state-controlled ONT channel where he appeared in distress.
The AP was also unable to verify the conditions under which the interview was filmed, or the veracity of what Pratasevich said as well as the origin of marks on his wrists
Move follows forced landing of Ryanair flight and detention of Raman Pratasevich last month
The EU has banned Belarusian carriers from its airspace and airports over the forced landing of Ryanair flight FR4978 and arrest of the opposition activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich.
EU ambassadors agreed during a meeting on Friday to require member states to deny the country’s carriers landing and taking off rights and forbid them from overflying the territory of the 27 member states from Saturday.
Continue reading...Supporters say Raman Pratasevich’s apparent confession, in which the blogger broke down in tears, was the result of ‘abuse, torture and threats’
Detained journalist Raman Pratasevich appeared on Belarusian state television on Thursday, tearfully confessing to his role in anti-government protests in an interview which the opposition said was made under duress.
In his third appearance since his Ryanair plane was forced to land in Belarus by the authorities on 23 May, Pratasevich admitted to plotting to topple President Alexander Lukashenko by organising “riots” and recanted earlier criticism of the veteran leader.
Continue reading...Stsiapan Latypau carried out unconscious after claiming he was pressured to plead guilty
A Belarusian opposition activist stabbed himself in the throat with a pen during a court hearing after claiming investigators had pressured him to plead guilty or face his family and friends being arrested.
Footage from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty showed Stsiapan Latypau, who has organised protests against the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, lying inside a defendant’s cage as witnesses screamed in a courtroom in Minsk.
Continue reading...White House says the US, the EU and other allies will target key members of President Lukashenko’s government
The Biden administration has said it is drawing up a list of targeted sanctions against key members of the Belarusian government which forced the landing of a passenger jet and had a journalist on board arrested.
The White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday the United States was also suspending a 2019 agreement between Washington and Minsk that allowed carriers from each country to use the other’s airspace, and taking other actions against the government of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Continue reading...Journalists and activists targeted in most wide-reaching crackdown since days of Soviet Union
Church bells rang in the city of Byarozawka as hundreds of mourners laid Vitold Ashurak to rest. They draped the white-red-white flag favoured by the Belarusian opposition over his body, as local police kept a wary eye on the funeral.
Sentenced to five years in prison after last year’s mass demonstrations against Alexander Lukashenko, the 50-year-old protest leader survived less than one. When Ashurak’s body was returned to his family, his head was entirely covered in bandages – only his mouth was visible, a family friend said.
Continue reading...International Civil Aviation Organization to hold ‘exceptional session’ as governments rush to deter copycat incidents
A speedy investigation into the “hijacking” by Belarus of Ryanair flight FR4978 is expected to be launched following an emergency meeting of the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization on Thursday, as governments rush to deter copycat incidents.
The 36-member council of the ICAO, based in Montreal, will hold an “exceptional session” to “share and review the latest information available, and discuss” the forced grounding of the aircraft in Minsk, a spokesperson said.
Continue reading...European countries begin to block flights from Minsk, with flight to Barcelona turned around at Polish border
Alexander Lukashenko has made his first public remarks defending his grounding of a Ryanair flight last week, accusing the west of launching a “hybrid modern war” against Minsk and calling the backlash over the incident a “planned provocation”.
Addressing a session of parliament, Lukashenko also appeared to suggest the plane could have been shot down because it was flying over a nuclear power plant when it was diverted by the Belarusian government, which appeared to have concocted a bomb threat and scrambled a Mig-29 to ensure the plane landed.
Continue reading...Analysis: Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega are just the latest to be forced into the widespread tactic
The videos are formulaic: Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, each sit alone in front of a camera in a police station and deliver their “confessions” as though a loaded gun is pointed at their heads.
“I’m also the editor of the Telegram channel Black Book of Belarus that publishes personal information about employees of the interior ministry,” said Sapega, quickly repeating a memorised statement in a video released late on Tuesday that could lead to years in jail.
Continue reading...Belarusian authorities have released a video of Sofia Sapega, the girlfriend of the detained journalist Raman Pratasevich. The video appears to show Sapega confessing to being the editor of an anti-government channel on the social media site Telegram.
Family members have said her and Pratasevich's confessions were clearly coerced. An earlier video showed Pratasevich saying police were treating him well and confessing to organising anti-government protests in Minsk
Continue reading...Parents of Raman Pratasevich fear for his life, as mother of girlfriend Sofia Sapega says she was not involved in politics
The parents of Raman Pratasevich have pleaded for international help to free the Belarusian journalist as US president Joe Biden said sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime were “in play”, without revealing further details.
From their new home in Poland, Natalia Pratasevich, the blogger’s mother, told Agence France-Presse: “I’m asking, I’m begging, I’m calling on the whole international community to save him.
Continue reading...Analysis: Minsk and Moscow watching carefully to see if EU makes good on threat of targeted economic sanctions
A new wave of sanctions and restrictive measures on Belarus’s aviation industry, severing its direct links with much of Europe, looks set to increase the country’s reliance on Russia, yet Moscow, its remaining ally, appears wary.
Kremlin officials have offered only muted support over an incident that has been described as “air piracy” and an “act of state terrorism” by Alexander Lukashenko, a leader whom Vladimir Putin treats as a junior partner, and often with open disdain.
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