joint statement

Statement by the human rights community of Belarus on the criminal charges against Siarhei Tsikhanouski and six other participants in the May 29 picket in Hrodna

Minsk - June 9, 2020

On May 29, during a picket held in Hrodna to collect signatures in support of the presidential nomination of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, police detained the head of her nomination group, blogger known for a popular YouTube channel “Country for Living” Siarhei Tsikhanouski and at least 15 other people who took part in the picket.

It was known recently that in Belarus 52 thousand signatures were collected for the appeal to the Presidential Administration demanding "initiating the adoption of a law on prohibition of propaganda and public demonstration of homosexuality and other sexual perversions to minors and criminalizaiton of these actions in the Criminal Code." Furthermore, mass media published the Health Ministry‘s response to the collective  appeal stating that «The Ministry stands for the promotion of traditional  family values and supports the following proposals regarding the draft Law “On Amending Codes on A

The trial in the criminal case of anarchist activist Dzmitry Paliyenka has been scheduled for September 25. The hearing will be held behind closed doors at the Minsk City Court.

Dzmitry Paliyenka, who was earlier called a political prisoner by the Belarusian human rights community and a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was again arrested by police on March 20, 2019, on suspicion of committing particularly malicious hooliganism (using pepper spray against a citizen following a verbal conflict) and placed in pre-trial detention.