Human Rights House network calls to release Bialiacki

The Human Rights House Network has called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release rights defender.

The network addressed to Aliaksandr Lukashenka and Belarus’ Prosecutor General with an open letter.

“We, the undersigned members and partners of the Human Rights House Network, are deeply concerned about the continued detention of Alies Bialiacki and the significant deterioration of his detention conditions. Alies Bialiacki 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 from our partners, Alies Bialiacki’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 Alies Bialiacki’s health. We would like to note that this latest deterioration of detention conditions of Alies 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 Stefan Fule, all calling for his immediate release.

We believe that Belarusian authorities have to take all necessary measures to allow human rights defenders to work freely and with no abusive restrictions, including by providing registration to human rights organisations and to stop using the registration of NGOs as a tool to repress critical voices, as stated in the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders,“ - said in the letter.

The letter was signed by all members of the Human Rights House Network.